Assassin Justice
by Whovian521
Summary: The YJ team finds out they aren't the only ones investigating Cadmus. OC/Cheshire. Rated T for safety.
1. Chapter 1

A lone figure stood on the rooftops of Washington D.C. At 5'11 he was at average height for a 16 year old. His hair was a light brown and was partially covering one of his deep green eyes. He was wearing a black outfit odd for this day and age that blended into the shadows. On his outfit were throwing knives, various bombs, a dagger, and his hidden blade along with his hook blade. His lithe, yet muscular body gave off an aura of confidence that was unusual for someone his age. On his belt was a triangle looking insignia. His name was Derek Williams and he was an Assassin.

Derek, or Creed as he called himself while he was in uniform, was looking at his target building from the roof of another building across the street. "It doesn't look like much, but looks can be deceiving," He muttered to himself. He looked up to see the sun beginning to set. _"Once it gets dark I can-"_. Creed's thoughts were interrupted by a small explosion on the second story of the building, causing it to catch fire. "Or that could happen."

Not wanting to waste this golden opportunity Creed leapt across the rooftops until he stopped on the Cadmus building. Using his hook blade he scaled down the wall until he came to a window. Looking inside he saw that everyone had already evacuated._"Good, no witnesses."_ Walking over to one of the computers he looked up the schematics for the building. Everything seemed normal until he looked at the elevator. "What's an express elevator doing in a two story building?" Creed asked himself.

A cry for help caught his attention. "Help!"

Sliding to the edges of the wall to avoid being seen Creed looked out just in time to see two scientists propelled out of the building by an explosion, but before they hit the ground a blur caught them. It carried the two men safely to the roof but it couldn't get up all the way. After it stopped moving, he saw it was a boy. He fell back down a bit and grabbed onto the ledge. Creed then saw another boy skillfully jump onto the fire truck and swung on a cable to save his friend. A third boy directed some water to the trapped scientists and formed a platform for them to get on. He levitated them to the ground and then blasted the fire with twin streams of water, extinguishing it. Creed then realized that these were some of the heroes that he had heard about and that they were probably investigating Cadmus as well. Walking out into the hallway Creed froze when he saw the trio staring at the elevator and saying something he couldn't make out. Creed watched as they opened the elevator and the acrobatic kid fired a line and they began to descend into the hidden levels of Cadmus. Creed gave them a few minutes before going down the line himself, knowing that if they did look up his dark outfit would hide him from view.

After a while Creed finally came to the end of the line and saw that the trio had hacked open a door. Creed jumped into the hallway and seeing nobody around he decided to find out what the Templar were up to.

Staying in the shadows Creed found the trio looking at glowing capsules concealing wasp-like creatures inside producing electricity. _"That must be how they stay off the grid."_

"Don't move!"

Creed stiffened, but then relaxed a bit when he saw that the man in yellow and blue with a small group of some more mutants was looking at the trio.

"What? Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash?" asked the man.

"At least they got your name right," said the caped boy.

"I know you. You're Guardian, a hero," said the taller boy.

"I do my best," said Guardian.

"Then why are you here?" asked the fast kid.

"I think that's my question boys. I'm chief of security and you're trespassing. But we can call the Justice League and figure this out," he replied.

Creed heard a beep and saw the caped boy look back at the computer terminal.

"You think the League's gonna approve of you breeding weapons?" cried the fast kid.

"Weapons? What are you-" Guardian stopped talking just as the little creature on his shoulder looked at him and his horns began glowing. Guardian gripped his head for a second. "Take them down hard! No mercy!"

Creed was about to help them when he heard a growling behind him. Quickly spinning around Creed delivered a punch to the creature's jaw that was about to attack him that sent it flying into a nearby wall. The other creatures charged him but he easily fought them off.

"Whoa…" Creed looked to see the sidekicks staring at him. Another creature lunged at him, but he jumped on top of its head and leapt over to the others.

"You guys gonna stand there all day? Come on, they'll have back up any minute now!" Creed said to the still staring sidekicks.

The caped kid broke out of his stupor and quickly threw down a smoke grenade so as to lose their pursuers. He easily made his way ahead to another elevator and began hacking. Creed looked back down the hallway and saw more of the creatures coming at them. Creed grabbed a caltrop bomb and threw it in front of the attackers. They creatures hissed in pain as they stepped on the caltrops.

"Nice," commented Robin

The caped boy managed to hack the terminal and they all jumped into the elevator just as the creatures nearly broke through.

"Ok who are you?" cried Kid Flash.

"You may call me Creed."

"Well Creed, I suppose we should thank you," said Aqualad. "I'm Aqualad this is Kid Flash," he said pointing to the quick kid, "and this is Robin," he said pointing to the caped boy.

"So why are you guys here?" he asked.

"Investigating, you?" asked Robin.

"Same here, maybe we can help each other out. At least until we're finished with this freak show."

"Sounds good to me," said Robin smiling.

"Wait, why are we going down? Out is up!" cried Kid Flash.

"Excuse me? Project Kr is down, on sub level 52," replied Robin.

"This is out of control," said Aqualad. "Perhaps we should contact the League."

"So you're part of the League?"

"Well, kinda," said Robin.

Kinda?" he asked, cocking his eyebrow.

The elevator door opened and the area started looking less like a lab and more like the inside of a stomach.

Robin swiftly jumped out. "Well, we are already here," said Kid Flash.

Everyone else followed Robin out of the elevator.

"So which way are we supposed to go?" asked Creed.

"Yeah bizarre looking hallway #1 or bizarre looking hallway #2?" replied Robin.

"Halt!"

Everyone looked over and saw a blue skinned creature with horns dressed in a white lab outfit. His horns began glowing and with a flick of his wrist, he sent two explosive cans flying at the teenagers.

Everyone easily ducked as they exploded behind them. Robin threw a projectile at the guy but it stopped it in mid-air before it reached him. He lifted up another pair of explosive cans.

"Come on, let's go!" Creed said leading the others down the second hallway.

Kid Flash ran ahead and tripped a woman as he crashed near a closing door. He quickly read the sign on the door, saying "Project Kr", and stuck a container between the closing doors to keep them open.

"Hurry!" he cried. Everyone jumped in through the door as Aqualad kicked the container loose so the doors shut.

Robin quickly accessed the control panel near the door and began hacking again. "I disabled the door, we're safe."

"We're trapped is what we are," said Aqualad.

"Hey, at least they aren't trapped in here with us," said Creed.

"Uh, guys, you should look at this," said Kid Flash.

He pressed a button at a terminal and a pod in the middle of the room lit up. Inside the pod was a young man wearing a white skin suit with a red S on his chest.

"Big K, little R…the atomic symbol for Krypton," said Kid Flash.

"I'm gonna pretend that you guys are familiar with this kind of stuff," said Creed.

"Robin, hack," said Aqualad.

"Huh? Oh, right." He plugged in his USB cable and began hacking. "Let's see. Weapon designation 'Superboy' grown in 16 WEEKS?" he cried at the end. "From DNA acquired from Superman."

"More like stolen," said Aqualad.

"No way the big guy knows about this," said Kid Flash.

"It says here that his solar suit allows him to absorb yellow light radiation 24/7."

"And these…creatures?" asked Aqualad.

"Genomorph gnomes…telepathic, force feeding him in education," replied Robin.

"They're brainwashing him, oh that is _so_ Templar," said Creed.

Robin looked at Creed. "Templar?"

Creed replied, "If we make it out of here alive I'll tell you."

"Now's the time to contact the League."

Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad tried to use their communicators but to no avail.

"No signal," said Aqualad.

"We're in too deep…literally," said Kid Flash. He looked over to Superboy. "This is wrong."

"We can't leave him like this," said Robin.

"Set him free," said Aqualad.

"It would be the right thing to do," said Creed.

Robin pressed a few buttons and the pod opened. Superboy suddenly jumped and tackled Aqualad to the ground and started punching him.

Robin, Kid Flash and Creed quickly ran over and grabbed onto Superboy trying to hold him back.

"Hey, relax! We're on your side," cried Kid Flash.

Superboy punched Kid Flash into a large glass test tube, shattering it on impact. He moved back and punched Creed in the gut and sent him flying into the wall. Creed tried to get up, but he was in too much pain from the blow to the gut and the subsequent hit to the back. He wouldn't be surprised if he had fractured some ribs.

Superboy stepped back and waved his hands to clear the air. Aqualad kicked Superboy into the terminal that Robin had hacked to open Superboy's pod.

Robin quickly pulled out his shock gun and fired it at Superboy. Just as the wires made contact with his chest, he grabbed the wires and pulled Robin towards him. Superboy grabbed Robin and threw him to the ground. Before Robin could recover, Superboy put his foot on Robin's chest and began stepping down, hard. Robin tried to push Superboy off him, but he was far too strong.

Aqualad formed a hammer with his weapons and smashed Superboy off Robin. Aqualad tried to help Robin up, but Superboy had pressed his foot on Robin's chest too hard and he passed out.

Superboy began walking over to Aqualad.

"We are trying to help you!"

Superboy charged at Aqualad, who managed to dodge in time and tackled Superboy into the wall. Aqualad tried to punch him but Superboy grabbed Aqualad's fist and pushed him off. Aqualad grabbed Superboy from behind, but Superboy just jumped up to the ceiling to get Aqualad off. It only took two jumps for Aqualad to lose consciousness.

Superboy walked over to the door Robin had locked and pried it open with his super strength.

Creed's slipped into unconsciousness just as a man with orange hair dressed in a white lab coat walked in and smiled when he saw the four helpless teenagers.

/

_'Time is short. You must awaken. You must awaken…NOW!'_

Kid Flash, Aqualad, Robin and Creed suddenly opened their eyes and found themselves stuck inside pods with their hands restrained above their heads.

"Great," Creed mutter sarcastically.

Superboy stood in front of the pods just staring at them.

"What? What do you want?" cried Kid Flash.

"Stop staring at us like that!" cried Robin.

"Yeah, you're giving us the creeps!" said Kid Flash.

"Hey, KF, why don't we try not to tick off the guy who can fry us with a look?" retorted Robin.

"We only sought to help you," said Aqualad.

"Yeah, we free you and you turn on us! How's that for gratitude?" said Kid Flash.

"Kid, be quiet now. I believe our new friend was not in complete control of his actions," said Aqualad.

"Wha-what is I was?" asked Superboy.

"He can talk?" cried Kid Flash.

Superboy clenched his fist. "Yes, **he** can."

"Nice going motor mouth," said Creed.

Robin and Aqualad gave Kid Flash a look. "What? It's not like I said 'it'."

"The Genomorphs taught you, telepathically," said Aqualad.

"They taught me much. I can read, write, and I know the names of things."

"But have you ever actually seen them? Have you ever seen the sun or the sky?" asked Robin

"Images are implanted in my mind…but no."

"Do you know what you are? Who you are?" asked Aqualad.

"I am the Superboy, a Genomorph clone of Superman, created to replace him should he perish…to destroy him should he turn from the light."

"Oh now the Templar are going after heroes too, _great_," Creed said.

"To be like Superman is a great aspiration. But like Superman you deserve a life of your own, beyond that solar suit, beyond that pod…beyond Cadmus," said Aqualad.

"I LIVE BECAUSE OF CADMUS!" shouted Superboy. "IT IS MY HOME!"

"Your home is a test tube," said Robin. "We can show you the sun."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure it's after midnight, so it would be the moon," said Kid Flash.

"That's not the point," said Creed.

"We can show you, introduce you, to Superman," said Aqualad.

Superboy's expression changed from serious to deep thought.

"No, they can't."

The orange haired man, the woman Kid Flash ran into and Guardian entered the room, each with a Genomorph gnome on their shoulder.

"They'll be otherwise occupied. Begin the cloning sequence."

"Pass, Batcave's crowded enough," said Robin.

"Wow, I thought you guys were trying to get rid of the Assassins, not make more of them," Creed quipped.

The orange haired man just smiled, "We'll use your memories to track down the Assassin bases and end the order once and for all." Creed didn't show it, but he was worried, he knew the location of a lot of Assassin bases, if the Templar got their hands on that, well he didn't want to think about it.

"You're an assassin!" Kid Flash asked.

"I said if we get out of here alive I'll tell you." Creed said.

"I'm afraid you won't be leaving this place. And get the weapon back in it's pod!" he ordered Guardian.

"Yes, Mr. Desmond," replied Guardian.

"Hey, how come he gets to call Supey an 'it'?" asked Kid Flash.

"Not the main issue right now," said Creed.

"Help us," said Aqualad.

Guardian put his hand on Superboy's shoulder to lead him out, but he shook Guardian off.

"Don't start thinking now," said Desmond. A Genomorph gnome jumped onto Superboy's shoulder and it's horns began glowing. "You see, you're not a real boy, you're a weapon and you belong to me! Well, to Cadmus, same difference! Now get back into your pod!"

Superboy turned and left the room without a word.

Desmond looked over to the woman, who nodded. "The cloning sequence is ready, sir."

Two robotic arms with four needles appeared and pierced Creed's chest. The contact caused a powerful electric shock to course through his body. He cried out in pain as the needles drew blood from his veins.

The same arms appeared in Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad's capsule and began drawing blood from them, causing them the same pain Creed was experiencing.

All of a sudden, the door was torn off and tossed aside by Superboy.

"What are you doing? I thought I told you to go back to your pod!"

Desmond, Guardian and Dubbilex ran to grab Superboy, but he easily pushed them aside.

"Don't give me orders."

The needles withdrew, stopping the electric shock.

"So are you here to help us or fry us?" asked Kid Flash.

Superboy narrowed his eyes. "Huh…I don't seem to have heat vision, so I guess helping you is my only option."

Robin's restraints suddenly unlocked. "Ugh finally! Good thing Batman's not here, he'd have my head for taking so long to pick that lock."

"Seriously, **that's** what you're worried about?" asked Kid Flash. "THE WHOLE LEAGUE WILL HAVE OUR HEADS WHEN WE GET BACK!"

Robin pressed a button and the remaining capsules opened.

"You free Aqualad and Kid mouth, I'll get Creed," said Robin.

"Don't you start giving me orders too!" said Superboy. Superboy jumped over to Aqualad and Kid Flash and ripped off their restraints.

Robin looked over to Creed's pod only to see he was already climbing out.

"How…" Robin's question trailed off.

Creed just smiled and said, "You're not the only one that can pick a lock." Hey then raced out of the room.

"You'll never get out of here! I'll have you all back in pods within minutes!" shouted Desmond at the fleeing teens

"That guy is not whelmed, not whelmed at all." Robin turned and threw four of his projectiles at the containers holding their blood, which exploded on impact.

"What is your deal with this 'whelmed' thing?" asked Kid Flash as they left.

"We're still 42 levels underground. If we can get to an elevator, we can-" before Aqualad could continue talking, a herd of giant Genomorphs stood between them and the only elevator.

"You forgot to factor in Murphy's Law." said Creed.

Behind them the smaller Genomorphs began coming out of egg-like shells attached to the walls. One of the large Genomorphs slammed their fists into the ground. Everyone managed to jump back and avoid it and ran ahead while easily dodging the oncoming attacks. However, Superboy, seemed intent on fighting.

"Superboy! The goal is escape! Not to bury ourselves!" shouted Aqualad.

Superboy picked up one of the giant Genomorphs he had knocked down and slammed its body into two others, knocking them back.

Aqualad pried open the elevator doors.

Creed and Robin both fired lines up the elevator shaft and began to ascend.

Superboy grabbed Aqualad and began flying up the elevator shaft, but started falling.

"I'm…falling?"

Robin threw a projectile at the wall, which Aqualad grabbed a hold of.

"Superman can fly…why can't I fly?"

"Don't know, but looks like you can still leap over buildings with a single jump. Still pretty cool," said Kid Flash.

All of a sudden, an elevator from above began descending.

"Guys! This'll have to be our exit!" shouted Robin.

Aqualad and Superboy opened the elevator doors and they got out of the shaft just before the elevator came crashing down on them.

They began running down the hall as a group of Genomorphs appeared and chased them.

_'Turn left…'_ Superboy heard a voice in his head.

"Left!" he cried out. They turned left at the corner.

_'Turn right…'_

"Right!" They turned right and wound up at a dead end with a vent.

"Great directions Supey, are you trying to get us repodded?" cried Kid Flash.

"No…I don't understand," said Superboy.

"What are to talking about?" Creed asked.

"Yeah, don't apologize, this is perfect!" cried Robin. Creed ripped off the cover of the vent and they all crawled in.

"Shh! Listen," said Superboy.

"I don't hear anything," said Robin.

"It's the Genomorphs. There in the vents." Superboy explained.

They reached an opening into an empty hallway and Robin began hacking again.

"What are you doing now?" asked Creed.

"Just a second….there. I hacked the motion sensors." Robin smirked.

"Nice," complimented Creed.

"But there's still plenty of them between us and out," said Robin.

"Who cares? At least I've got room to run now." Kid Flash put on his goggles and zoomed up the staircase, pushing aside any Genomorphs as the other followed behind.

Suddenly, red lights turned on and alarms sounded. Just as Kid Flash got out of the stairway, a large door shut in the hallway.

"Oh crud." He said, crashing into the wall.

"We're cut off from the street," said Aqualad.

"Thanks, my head hadn't noticed," said Kid Flash.

Superboy and Aqualad tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge.

"I can't hack this fast enough!" cried Robin. He turned around and saw a herd of giant Genomorphs. "This way!" Robin led them through a door but it only led everyone to a bigger heard of Genomorphs led by Guardian.

The Genomorph gnomes' horns started glowing, causing the teenagers to lose consciousness. Superboy, however was still awake.

"You…" he said.

_'Yes, I set the fire that lured your new friends down into Cadmus; I awoke them when they were in danger…'_

_'…and guided me. Why?'_ thought Superboy.

_'Because you are our last hope, the Genomorph hero. You will glaze a trail for all our brothers, showing us the way to freedom.'_

The Genomorph on Guardian's shoulder jumped off. "What? What's going on?" Guardian groaned while he rubbed his head.

The others began regaining consciousness.

_'What will you choose?'_

"I choose…freedom!" declared Superboy.

"Guardian?" asked Aqualad.

"Go, I'll deal with Desmond," said Guardian, clearly thinking.

"I think not. You kids have caused me a lot of trouble today. Project Blockbuster will allow me to restore that order. May the Father of Understanding guide me!" said Desmond. He held up a test tube containing a blue liquid and drank it. His body began changing into a large rock like substance as all his clothes, except his pants, were ripped off as his body expanded.

Guardian moved to attack but Blockbuster pushed him aside. Superboy tried next and landed a couple punches before Blockbuster grabbed him and jumped through the ceiling onto the next floor.

"Well that's one way to burst through a ceiling," said Robin firing his cable.

"You think lab coat planned that?" asked Kid Flash as he and Creed grabbed onto Robin.

"I doubt he's planning anything anymore," said Aqualad.

Once they all made it to the upper level, Blockbuster threw Superboy into Aqualad, sending them both flying back. Robin, Kid Flash and Creed ran back to make sure they were ok.

Kid Flash ran up to Blockbuster and slid beneath him. Distracted, Blockbuster quickly turned back just as Superboy and Aqualad punched him. Kid Flash knelt down so Blockbuster tripped over him.

"Learned that one in kindergarten." He said.

Robin jumped over Kid Flash and threw two projectiles at Blockbuster who blocked them with his arm.

"What are we going to do? This guy isn't going down without a fight!" cried Creed, whose throwing knives were having little effect on Blockbuster.

"Yeah, tell me about it. We need a plan," said Robin.

Blockbuster punched one of the pillars just as Kid Flash dodged, causing the above structure to crumble slightly.

"That's it!" Robin's digital computer brought up a diagram of the building they were currently in. "KF, get over here!"

Kid Flash managed to get up and made his way over to Robin and Creed.

"If we can break all the pillars, we can collapse the building on him. You distract him and I'll get Superboy and Aqualad caught up," explained Robin.

"Got it." Kid Flash ran over and punched Blockbuster, drawing his attention away from Superboy and Aqualad.

Superboy, Aqualad and Creed smashed the remaining pillars as Robin drew an X in the middle of the room with some chalk.

"KF! Get him on the X!" cried Robin.

Kid Flash ran over to Blockbuster and punched him in the head, making Blockbuster chase him. Aqualad sprayed the floor with water as Kid Flash used it to slide to a stop just in front of the X. Superboy jumped up from behind Kid Flash and punched Blockbuster to the ground. Aqualad sent a powerful electric shock into the water, which carried the electricity to Blockbuster.

"We've got to move!" cried Robin. Everyone began running for the door just as several of Robin's projectiles on the broken pillars detonated causing the entire building to collapse.

Superboy and Aqualad quickly covered Kid Flash, Robin, and Creed.

Once the building had fallen, Superboy lifted a large piece of debris off them. Everyone was fine and had only a few minor scratches and rips on their clothes.

"We…did it," said Aqualad.

"Was there…ever any doubt?" asked Robin. He and Kid Flash high-fived each other before grabbing their chests in pain.

"That was awesome! We need to do that again sometime!" cried Creed.

Superboy walked over to the crushed Blockbuster.

"See?" Superboy turned over to Kid Flash. "The moon."

Superboy looked up at the moon and squinted. A figure in red and blue flew towards the teenagers and landed before them. Many other superhero-like figures landed behind Superman.

"Wow, and Superman! Do we keep our promises or what?" asked Kid Flash.

"Oh, you guys are _soo_ busted," said Creed.

Superboy walked up to Superman and showed him the red S on his chest causing Superman's eyes to widen. Superboy smiled slightly but it quickly faded when Superman's face turned serious.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Batman.

"He doesn't like being called an it," whispered Kid Flash.

"I'm Superman's clone." Declared Superboy, causing the other supers to look at each other in shock.

Batman glared at the teenagers. "Start taking."

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat but I have some work to do. And since you're not in charge of me, I can't get in trouble. So…bye!" Creed threw down a smoke grenade and when it cleared, he was gone.

After the teenagers explained what happened, most of the supers hauled Blockbuster away while Superboy looked over and saw Superman speaking with Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter.

Superman walked over to Superboy. "We'll, uh, figure something out for you. The League will, I mean. For now, I, uh, better make sure they get that Blockbuster creature locked up straight away." With that, Superman departed.

Batman, Flash, and Aquaman walked up to the teenagers. "Cadmus will be investigated, all 52 levels, but let's get one thing straight," said Batman.

"You should have called," said Flash. "And who was the boy?"

He said his name was Creed. He was investigating just like we were and he really helped us out," replied Robin.

"End results aside, we are not happy. You hacked League computers, disobeyed direct orders and endangered lives. You will not be doing it again," said Batman.

"We did good work here tonight: the kind of work you trained us to do. Together, on our own, we forged something powerful and important," said Aqualad.

"If this is about your treatment at the hall, the three of you…" said Flash.

"The four of us," said Kid Flash. "And it's not."

"Batman, we're ready to use what you taught us, or why teach us at all?" Said Robin.

"Why let them tell us what to do?" asked Superboy. It was clear he didn't like being given orders. "It's simple, either get on board, or get out of the way."

/

"This cave was the original headquarters for the Justice League. We're calling it into service again. And since you four are determined to stay together and fight the good fight, you'll do it on League terms," said Batman.

"Red Tornado has volunteered to live here and be your supervisor. Black Canary will handle training. I will deploy you on missions," finished Batman.

"Real missions?" asked Robin.

"Yes, but covert." replied Batman.

"The League will still handle the obvious stuff. There's a reason we have these big targets on our chest," said Flash, pointing to the lightning bolt on his chest.

"But Cadmus proves that the bad guys are getting smarter and Batman needs a team that can operate on the sly," said Aquaman.

"The six of you will be that team," said Batman.

"Cool…wait, six?" asked Robin.

Everyone turned around and saw Martian Manhunter with a girl similar to his appearance.

"This is the Martian Manhunter's niece, Miss Martian."

"Hi," she waved.

"I'm liking this gig already," said Kid Flash. "I'm Kid Flash, this is Robin, Aqualad. It's ok if you forget their names."

"I'm honored to be included," she said.

Everyone walked over to introduce themselves, except Superboy.

"Hey Superboy, come over here and meet Miss M," said Robin.

Just as he walked over, Miss Martian's shirt turned from white and red to black and red to match Superboy's.

"I like your T-shirt," she said, giving him a coy smile while she blushed.

Superboy smiled, just before Robin elbowed him in the rib and smiled at him.

"Today is the day," said Aqualad.

"Wait, you said six of us. With Miss Martian, that's only five," said Kid Flash.

"Miss me guys?" Everyone looked as Creed steeped out of the shadows.

"Creed! What are you doing here?" asked Kid Flash.

"Tall, dark and slightly scary, here tracked me down and offered me a spot on this team. I've got my reasons and being part of this team serves to assist those reasons. So since we're going to be a team, I suppose you guys should know my name." Pulling his hood down he smiled and said, "Derek Williams at your service."

"Well…we have secret identities to protect ourselves and our loved ones," said Kid Flash.

"Yes, but I assume we'll all be living together, besides, all my loved ones are perfectly capable of protecting themselves."

"How so?" asked Robin.

"Their part of the Assassin Brotherhood."

"The Assassin Brotherhood?" asked Aqualad.

"The Assassin Brotherhood is an organization that has been recorded in history since the Crusades. Their primary objective is to protecting the free will of the people from the Templar and have been proven as masters of combat and stealth," explained Batman. "You're a member of the Brotherhood…aren't you?"

"Yes," he said a little concerned on how someone outside the Brotherhood knew all that, he would have to ask Batman where he got that information.

Aqualad smiled and said, "Well Derek, welcome to the team."


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the next chapter, enjoy.**

ACYJACYJACYJACYJACYJ

It had already been a week since the formation of "Young Justice" and Miss Martian, Superboy and Derek settled into Mount Justice nicely. The aforementioned super heroes stood with Aqualad at the moment Robin and Kid Flash arrived in their civilian clothes. Derek was also in civilian clothes wearing a buttoned up ankle length trench coat.

"Did you ask him?" asked Robin.

"What did he say?" asked Kid Flash.

"He's arriving now," said Aqualad.

"Then what are we waiting for?" cried Kid Flash, racing out the front door as the others soon followed. Just as they made it outside, Red Tornado landed in front of him.

"Red Tornado!" Kid Flash cried with a smile on his face, clearly excited about Tornado's arrival.

"Greetings. Is there a reason you have intercepted me outside the cave?" he asked.

"We hoped you had a mission for us," said Aqualad.

"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility," replied Red Tornado.

"But it's been over a week and nothing's..," cried Robin.

"You will be tested soon enough. For the time being, simply enjoy each other's company."

"This team is not a social club," said Aqualad.

"I am told that social interaction is an important team building exercise. Perhaps you can keep busy by familiarizing yourself with the cave," Red Tornado walked into the cave.

"Keep busy," muttered Kid Flash.

"Does he think we're falling for this?" cried Robin.

"Oh, I'll find out!" cried Miss Martian, trying to read Red Tornado's mind. "I'm sorry, I forgot. He's a machine, I cannot read his mind."

"Nice try though," said Kid Flash.

"Probably not best to try that again though," said Derek.

"Why not?" asked Robin.

"Correct me if I'm wrong Robin, but would Batman like it if he found out that we were trying to read the minds of our supervisors?"

"No, he wouldn't like it," replied Robin.

"So, do you know what I'm thinking right now?" asked Kid Flash, walking up to Miss Martian.

"We don't need psychic powers to know what you're thinking," said Robin.

"Well Superboy, Derek and I live here, maybe we could give you a tour," said Miss Martian.

Kid Flash and Robin looked at Superboy. "Don't look at me." He said.

"We won't. I like the sound of that private tour," said Kid Flash.

"She didn't say it was private," said Robin.

"It's good for team building. We'll all go," said Aqualad.

"Well this is our front door," said Miss Martian, leading the group back into the cave. "The cave is actually the entire mountain," she explained.

"It was hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Green Lantern back in the earlier days of the League," explained Kid Flash.

"Then why abandon it for the Hall of Justice?" asked Derek.

"The cave's secret location was…compromised," said Aqualad.

"So they traded it in for a tourist trap? That sounds smart," said Superboy.

"If the villains know of the cave, we must be on constant alert," said Miss Martian.

"I'm always on constant alert," remarked Derek.

"The bad guys know we know they know about the place, so there's no need to worry," said Robin.

"He means we're hiding in plain sight," said Kid Flash.

"Oh, that's much clearer," said Miss Martian.

Superboy also sniffed the air. "Do I smell smoke?"

"Oh no! My cookies!" cried Miss Martian, soaring into the kitchen. She opened the oven and pulled out a tray of burnt cookies with her telekinesis.

"I was trying out Granny Jones' recipe from Episode 17 of…nevermind," said Miss Martian.

"I'm sure the cookies would've tasted great," said Robin.

"He doesn't seem to mind." Derek added as Kid Flash ate one of the burnt cookies.

"I have a serious metabolism." He said.

"I'll…make some more then," said Miss Martian. "It's too bad about this batch."

"It was sweet of you to make any," said Aqualad.

"Thanks Aqualad."

"Please, we're off duty, call me Kaldur'ahm, or Kaldur for short."

"I'm Wally, you see I already trust you with my secret identity. Dark glasses over there, Batman's forbidden Boy Wonder from telling anyone his real name," said Kid Flash.

"Mine's no secret! It's M'gann M'orzz. But you can call me Megan. It's an Earth name so I figured, since I'm on Earth."

Superboy began walking away. _'Don't worry Superboy, we'll find you an Earth name too.'_ Superboy turned back angrily.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" he shouted.

_'What's wrong? I don't understand. Everyone on Mars communicates telepathically.'_ Everyone grasped their heads as Megan spoke to them through their thoughts.

"M'gann, stop!" shouted Kaldur. "Things are difference on Earth. Here, you powers are an extreme invasion of privacy. People like having their thoughts to themselves."

"Besides, Cadmus' little psychic genomes left a bad taste in his brain," said Kid Flash.

"I-I didn't mean to-" she stuttered

"Just. Stay. Out," Superboy left the kitchen and sat on the couch in the adjacent living room.

Megan hung her head down sadly but snapped back up. "Hello, Megan!" she hit herself on her forehead. "I know what we can do!" she said in a cheery tone of voice while flying out of the kitchen as the others followed her.

Megan looked Superboy. "Superboy, please?"

"Don't talk to me." He replied.

Megan looked down sadly. Superboy saw this and stood up and followed the others down the hall. Megan smiled and followed.

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"Check it out, this is my Martian bioship," said Megan.

In front of them sat a large red oval with purple streaks.

"Cute, not very aerodynamic, but cute," said Kid Flash.

"It's at rest, silly. I'll wake it." Megan stuck her hand out and the oval morphed into a ship.

"That's so cool!" Derek remarked.

The entered the ship as controls and seats appeared before their eyes. Everyone sat in the seats, as seatbelts strapped them in.

"Red Tornado, please open the bay doors," said Megan, as the door opened. Megan flew the ship out of the cave and over the city.

"Wow, incredible!" cried Robin.

"Yeah, she sure is," said Kid Flash. Megan looked at him. "I mean, the ship, which is commonly referred to as a 'she'."

"Fast with his feet, not so much with his mouth," said Robin.

"Nice one," Derek commented.

"Dude!" cried Wally.

"I may not have psychic powers, but I know what you're thinking: you overreacted and you don't know how to apologize," whispered Aqualad to Superboy.

Superboy glanced back at Megan with no emotion on his face. Megan looked down sadly.

"Don't worry, he'll come around," whispered Robin.

"He doesn't seem to like me very much," said Megan.

"You guys remember he has super hearing right?" said Wally.

"Hey how about showing us some of your shape shifting powers?" asked Robin.

Megan stood up from her seat and morphed into Robin, though she was still easily recognizable as a girl. She then morphed into Kid Flash.

"Is it wrong that I think I'm hot?" asked Wally.

"Yes, it's very wrong," said Derek.

"Impressive, but you know you're not going to fool anyone with that right?" asked Robin as he clapped.

"Mimicking boys is a lot harder," said Megan.

"What about your clothes? They changed when you changed," said Aqualad.

"Their organic, like the ship. They respond to my mental commands."

"As long as they're the only ones," said Superboy.

"Can you do that passing through walls like Manhunter does?" asked Kid Flash.

"Density shifting? No, it's a very advanced technique."

"Flash can vibrate his molecules through solid objects," started Robin. "When he tries it, bloody nose."

"Dude!" cried Kid Flash.

"Here's something I can do: camouflage mode."

"Red Tornado to Miss Martian, an alarm has been triggered at the Happy Harbor Power Plant. I suggest you investigate, covertly. I'm sending you the coordinates," said Red Tornado from the ships communications system.

"Received, adjusting course," said Megan as she began steering the ship in another direction.

"Tornado's keeping us busy again," scoffed Robin.

"Well a simple fire led you to Superboy and brought Derek here, maybe we'll find out what caused the alert," said Megan.

"Uh, I think I know the cause," said Superboy, pointing out the side of the ship.

A tornado zoomed through the parking lot and sucked in the ship. Megan quickly steered the ship out and parked it over a safer area of the parking lot as everyone jumped out.

"Robin, are tornadoes common in New England?" asked Aqualad. But Robin wasn't there, "Robin?"

A mischievous laugh was heard.

"He was just here!" cried Megan.

"He left the moment we got out of the ship. He's in the power plant," Derek said as he took off his trench coat revealing his assassin uniform underneath, becoming Creed.

"You had your uniform under there the entire time?" KF asked as Creed put his hood on.

"Never go anywhere without it."

The windows of said power plant shattered, verifying that Robin was already causing trouble inside. Just as everyone else made it inside, Robin was thrown into a pillar by a gust of wind.

"Who's your new friend?" asked Superboy.

"Didn't catch his name, but he plays kinda rough!"

"My apologies. You may address me as Mister Twister," said the big, hulking red and black robotic figure.

Superboy charged at Mister Twister, who quickly countered by pushing Superboy back with tornadoes and sending him flying into the wall. The teens looked at each other with uncertainty, but were nonetheless confident when they all charged at Mister Twister, who easily blew them all back.

Creed, however, had a different plan. He easily scaled the wall and made it up to the upper platform. Creed remembered what his mentor said about charging blindly into battle. _"It is better to wait for an opening than to strike your opponent head on."_

"What a shame! I was expecting to be battling a real hero, not some children. Do you have any adult supervision? I find your presence here quite disturbing," taunted Mister Twister.

"Well I hate to see you disturbed, let's see how you feel after we kick your can!" cried Robin.

Megan used her telekinesis to pry open the container above Twister, releasing a cloud of steam over him. Superboy tried to attack again with a jump, but the steam cleared in time for Twister to blow him right into Megan. Robin and Aqualad charged next but got caught in two small twisters and crashed into each other.

"Indeed, that was quite disturbing," said Twister. "Now I seem to remember there being six of you."

"You remembered right!" Creed said as he jumped down from the platform and slammed his blades into Twister's back causing sparks to fly. Creed then jumped back onto the ground to avoid getting hit.

"Hm, you are clearly more skilled than the rest of your friends, since you are the only one who managed to land a hit on me," sparks came from Twister's right tornado generator; it was obviously damaged from Creed's attack.

Creed threw a knife at Twister. He held up his arm to stop the knife and flew out of the building. "Oh no you don't!"

Creed chased after him as Kid Flash regained consciousness outside.

"What did you do to my team!" he cried.

"Embarrassed them, largely." Twister blew Wally into Creed who followed after Twister.

"I've got you guys," said Megan, holding Wally and Creed with her telekinesis.

"Thanks." They both said.

"I would have thought you'd have all learned your limitations by now," said Twister.

"What do you want?" shouted Aqualad as Twister rose into the air.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm waiting for a _real_ hero."

"Read his mind, find a weak point," said Aqualad.

"I thought I wasn't supposed to do that," said Megan.

"It's ok with the bad guys!" cried Robin.

Megan closed her eyes and concentrated her powers on Twister. "Nothing, I'm getting nothing. Of course, Mister Twister is Red Tornado in disguise. He's an android and how many androids do you know that can generate tornadoes?"

"Red Tornado sent us here!" said Aqualad.

"After saying we'd be tested soon enough," added Robin. "This is his test! Something to keep us busy!"

"Speedy called it, we're a joke," said Wally.

"Are you guys sure about this? I don't know all these superheroes and villains, but I think it's too obvious to be Tornado," said Creed.

The others ignored him and walked up to Twister.

"We know who you are and what you want!" shouted Robin.

"So let's end this," said Aqualad.

"Yes, let's," said Twister. He held up his arms as clouds swarmed around them.

"Impressive show, but we will not indulge you. We will not engage," shouted Aqualad.

Lightning began striking around Twister.

"Um, can Red Tornado do that?" asked Wally.

"You think I'm Tornado! How ironic." Lightning struck the ground just in front of the teens and blew them away.

Superboy seemed unfazed by the lightning. He ripped off the remains of his jacket and jumped to punch Twister. Twister shot Superboy with lightning and sent him flying into the ground.

Megan awoke and moved her ship over them.

"Fine then, I won't deny that you children have power, but playing hide and seek with you will not help me achieve my objective. So stay concealed, if you can trump me again I will show no mercy." With that, Twister flew off.

Once he was gone, the others soon recovered.

"What happened?" asked Wally.

"I placed the bioship between us," replied Megan.

Superboy punched a rock. "And that's supposed to make it right?" He marched over to Megan. "You tricked us into thinking Twister was Red Tornado!"

"Calm down!" Creed said.

"She didn't do it on purpose!" said Aqualad.

"It was a rookie mistake. We shouldn't have listened," said Robin.

"You're still pretty inexperienced. Hit the showers, we'll take it from here," said Wally.

"Stay out of our way!" said Superboy, bitterly.

Superboy, Wally, Aqualad and Robin raced off to find Twister.

"I was just trying to be part of the team," said Megan, hanging her head down sadly.

"The only thing you did wrong was assume something, and everyone does that at least once in their career." Creed said.

"Really?" Megan asked, looking up at Creed.

"Yes, and nobody was hurt, so its fine." Megan noticed that as he said that his eyes had a faraway look as if he was remembering something. Shaking his head Creed brought himself back to the present. "Come on lets go find the others."

They got on the ship and took off, looking for any signs of Twister and the others.

"Maybe we should call Red Tornado," said Creed.

"Good idea, Miss Martian to Red Tornado." Megan explained the situation to Tornado. "We really need your help."

"If I intervened, it would not be to help. Still it is an odd coincidence that this Twister shares my elemental abilities and my immunity to telepathy."

"Hello Megan! I've got it!"

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The guys had managed to catch up with Twister who easily laid waste to them at the harbor.

Robin tried throwing a couple bombs, but Twister would just get them away with his tornado powers. Superboy tried to attack head on, but Twister blew him away into a house he had earlier deposited Aqualad in.

Wally and Robin took refuge behind a large piece of debris as Robin whipped out his utility belt.

"You brought your utility belt?"

"Never leave home without it, first thing Batman taught me!"

"Yeah, right after never go to the bathroom without it."

_'Listen to me, all of you._' thought Megan.

"What did we tell you!" shouted Superboy.

_'I know, I know. I messed up. But I'm very clear on what we have to do. Please trust me.'_

"Drop me over Twister, I can get him from here and buy you some time," Creed told Megan. Megan flew her ship in camouflage mode over Twister as Creed jumped out of the ship.

Creed readied his hidden blades and began spinning as gravity did its work. Twister didn't notice him until just before he sliced him across the chest with his blades. He quickly used Twister's chest to jump back to evade any possible counter attack.

Before the boys could execute their plan, Red Tornado arrived.

"Hit the showers boys. I was hoping you could handle this, clearly I was wrong."

"But we have a plan now!" cried Robin.

"The subject is not up for debate."

The boys walked aside.

"I was beginning to think you'd never show up," said Twister.

"I'm here now," said Tornado. He raised his hand and sent a twister at…Twister, who moved back and countered with his own. "We are evenly matched Twister."

"No, Tornado we are not."

Twister shot lightning at Tornado. He tried to evade but the lightning caught a nearby boat on fire and the explosion knocked Tornado to the ground.

"Remain still android, the reprogramming won't take long," said Twister. Cables extended from his fingertips stuck onto Tornado's head.

Tornado suddenly looked up and grabbed the cables, his head turning into Megan's. "Longer than you might think."

Twister was caught off guard as Wally, spinning around to make his own tornado, struck Twister. Superboy grabbed Twister by the arm and punched two holes in him before sending him into the water. Aqualad swam up to Twister and struck him with an anchor, using his eel tattoos to unleash electricity into him, blowing off his right arm and sending out of the water and back onto the boardwalk. Megan lifted Twister up and used her telekinesis to rip of his other arm and most of his armor as Robin and Creed threw some bombs on Twister.

Twister fell to the ground and his chest opened as a brown haired, scrawny man fell out. "Foul, I-I call foul."

Megan lifted up a large rock and brought if over the man.

"M'gann, no!" cried Aqualad, but Megan beat him too it as she brought the boulder onto the man.

Everyone stared at what Megan had just done. Robin was the first to react.

"Don't know how things are done on Mars, but on Earth we don't execute our captives!" he yelled.

"You said you trust me," she said. She lifted up the rock to reveal that the man was a robot. "That's why I couldn't read his mind."

Wally bent down and picked up the eyeball. "Cool, souvenir."

"We should've had more faith in you," said Aqualad. Megan smiled.

"Yeah, you rocked this mission. Get it? Rock?" said Wally.

"Ignore him, we're all just glad you're on the team," said Robin.

"Thanks, me too," said Megan.

"We should get this back to the cave. Figure out who made it," said Creed.

"Good call," said Aqualad.

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"It was clearly designed to sabotage or destroy you," said Aqualad.

"Agreed," said Tornado.

"Is that why you wouldn't come help?" asked Megan.

"No, this was your battle. I do not believe it is my role to solve your problems for you, nor should you solve mine for me."

"But if you're in danger…" started Megan.

"Consider this matter closed," Red Tornado began walking out of the room.

"Batman, Aquaman and Flash would've jumped right in to help," said Wally.

"I guess if we're going to need a babysitter, a cold, heartless one is just the kind we need," said Robin.

"Dude, harsh!" cried Wally.

"And inaccurate. I have a heart, carbon steel alloy. I also have excellent hearing."

"Uh…right, I'll try to be more…accurate."

"And respectful," added Aqualad.

"Speedy was so wrong about this," said Wally.

"This team thing might actually work out," said Aqualad.

Superboy prepared to leave but stopped. He turned to Megan with an apologetic look.

"Sorry." He said.

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**Review! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, I realized that I forgot to do the disclaimer, so here it is.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Assassins Creed or Young Justice, only my OC.**

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Creed and the rest of the team gathered in the briefing room in uniform for Batman to give them their first mission.

"Isla Santa Prisca. This island nation is the primary source of dangerous and illegal neo-steroid, a strength enhancing drug sold under the street name, Venom. Infrared heat signatures indicate their factory is still operating at full capacity, but all shipments of Venom have been inexplicably cut off." Batman explained, while showing the teens several images. "This is where the team comes in. This is a covert, recon mission _only_. Observe and report. If the Justice League needs to intervene, it will. The plan will require two drops zones."

"So who's in charge?" Robin asked a question that no doubt everyone else was thinking.

Batman and Red Tornado looked at each other and then at the teens. "Work that out amongst yourselves. Head out!"

Everyone got onto Megan's bioship and rode off to the coordinates set by Batman. "We're approaching Santa Prisca," she said. "Drop Zone A in 30."

Aqualad stood from his seat as it disappeared into the ship's organic form. He pressed the symbol on his belt and his outfit immediately morphed into a darker color. "Ready." He said.

"Putting bioship into camouflage mode," she flew close to the surface of the water and dropped Aqualad into the water.

About a minute later, they heard Aqualad via the radio. "Heat and motion systems have been patched. The data's on a continuous loop. Move in now."

"Drop zone B." Everyone stood up as their seats disappeared. Megan raised her arm and three cables came out of the ceiling in front of Robin, KF and Creed as they attached the cables to their waists.

KF pressed his icon and his red and yellow outfit changed to all black. "How cool is this?" he said to Megan.

"Very impressive," she replied. She suddenly morphed her outfit to a skintight black suit, still with the red markings and blue cape.

"Uh, that works too. Hey Supey, not too late to put on the new stealth tech," said KF.

"No capes, no tights. No offense," he said, crossing his arms.

"Agreed," said Creed.

"It totally works for you," said Megan, as she was 'checking out' Superboy. "In that you can totally do good work in those clothes," she quickly fumbled, giving him a nervous thumbs up.

Megan floated down to the ground while Robin, KF and Creed came down via the cables. They all quickly moved aside as Superboy came crashing down, creating a small crater with his impact.

"Knew I didn't need a line," He said.

"And yet, creating a seismic event may not have helped us much with the covert!" said Robin.

"Neither does yelling!" whispered/cried Creed.

"Aqualad, drop B is a go," said Megan.

"Roger that, head for the factory. I'll track your GPS and rendezvous with you ASAP." He replied.

They started making their way to the factory through the lush jungle. Superboy suddenly stopped.

"Did you hear that?"

"No, wait is this a super hearing thing?" asked KF.

"You do have great ears," said Megan, dreamily.

"Ok, Rob, now what?" asked KF. He looked ahead of them, but Robin was gone. "Man, I hate it when he does that!"

"Guys, switch to infrared, see if you're being tracked," said Aqualad.

KF pulled down his goggles and scanned the jungle ahead.

"Got a squad of armed bozos incoming," said KF.

Superboy narrowed his eyes. "Two squads, but they'll meet each other before they find us."

All of a sudden, guns started firing.

"No super hearing required now," said KF.

"Swing wide, steer clear!" said Aqualad.

"Yeah, yeah just as soon as I find Rob," said KF.

"No wait!" cried Creed, but KF had already raced off. He suddenly tripped on the sand and fell in between the two squads.

KF pulled off his goggles and looked up to a bulky man who looked like a Mexican wrestler. "So much for stealthy."

They opened fire on KF, who ran to evade gunfire, only to run into the other squad they had indentified. Superboy came in and punched the wrestler into a tree. Robin suddenly jumped down from the trees.

"What is wrong with you guys! Remember, covert? Why didn't you follow my lead and vanish into the jungle."

"Follow your lead? How are we supposed to follow your lead when you just disappear all the time?" cried Creed while fighting off the guards, "It would have helped if motor mouth over here understood the meaning of the word 'covert'."

"We're not mind readers you know!" said KF. "Well, I'm not, anyway. And I resent that!"

"You told me I could only read the bad guys' minds," said Miss Martian.

Aqualad finally rejoined the group as they tied up all the soldiers to nearby trees.

"I recognize those uniforms: they belong to the Cult of Cobra," said Robin.

"I'm certain Batman would've mentioned it if he knew that a dangerous, extremist group was running Santa Prisca's Venom operation," said Aqualad.

"Agreed, and since there's clearly no love lost between the Cult and those goons, I'm betting Cobra came in and tossed them out," replied Robin.

"That's why normal supply lines have been cut off." Creed continued.

"We get it; Cobra wanted Santa Prisca, mystery solved. Radio Bats and let's go home!" said KF.

"These guys aren't on Venom, they're hoarding the stuff! We don't leave. Not until I know why," said Robin.

"Until **you** know why?" asked KF.

"This team needs a leader."

"And it's you?" asked KF. "Dude, you're a thirteen year old kid, who ducked out on us without a word."

Robin laughed. "And you're a mature fifteen? You blew our cover the first chance you got!"

"Don't you want to lead?" asked Miss Martian.

"No, you?" asked Superboy.

"After the Mister Twister fiasco? No thanks."

"You did all right," said Superboy. Miss Martian blushed.

"You don't even have super powers!" said KF.

"Well neither does Batman!" cried Robin.

"You're not Batman."

"Closest thing we got to him."

"Such clever little niños, but you only know half the story," said the wrestler. "Let me show you the rest, get you into the factory via my secret entrance."

Miss Martian knelt in front of him. "There is a secret entrance, but he's hiding something." Her eyes began glowing as she tried to read his mind.

"Nuh uh ah, Bane is not that easy to read."

"Ugh, he's mentally reciting football scores and español. This could take a while."

"It's not complicated; the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Bane smiled. They untied Bane and prepared to leave when one of the radios went off.

"_Lieutenant, report." _The person on the other radio said in Spanish.

"Uh oh," said KF.

"_Lieutenant, report!"_

Acting quickly Creed picked up the radio and lowered his voice several octaves and replied in Spanish, "Lieutenant reporting."

"_What happened, we heard gunfire."_

"One of the idiots in my squad thought he saw someone, but it was just a bird."

"_I'll make sure he is punished for his idiocy when you get back from your patrol in 15 minutes."_

"Understood, Lieutenant out." Turning off the radio Creed looked up to see the shocked face of the others. "What?" He asked innocently.

"How did you do that?" Robin asked.

"Part of my training, now come on, we only have 15 minutes before they realize something is wrong."

Bane led them to a cliff with a perfect view of the factory.

Robin pulled out his binoculars. "Look at all that product. There's definitely a buy going down. But if Cobra's not selling to the usual suspects…" started Robin.

"We need to find out who that buyer is," said Aqualad

"I was thinking the same thing," said KF.

"Yeah, you're the thinker," remarked Robin.

"Sarcasm? Dude, a real leader would focus on getting the answers," replied KF.

Bane lifted a huge rock and tossed it aside, revealing a hidden cave. "Answers, are this way."

KF started walking in. "So, now el luchadore is our leader."

Robin punched his arm as he walked in the cave.

They came to a metal door. Bane pressed his thumb against the pad and the door opened into a janitor's closet. Robin looked out the door to check for guards. "All clear." He said, before dashing off.

By the time everyone came out, Robin was out of sight. "Has the little fool already been caught?" asked Bane.

"No, he just does that," said Aqualad.

"Stay put, I'll gather intel and be back before the Boy Wonder." KF raced off before anyone could stop him.

"Great chain of command," remarked Bane.

"This is ridiculous! We need a leader!" cried Creed.

They immediately ducked down behind a conveyer belt as some of the cultists were loading shipments.

"It's a massive shipment," said Aqualad.

"Yeah, but they're only taking new product off the line. They're not touching this Venom," said Superboy.

"Maybe freshness counts?" asked Miss M.

"Or, there's something different about them," said Creed.

"Helicopter's coming," said Superboy. It took a few seconds before anyone else could hear the helicopter.

"Miss Martian, go invisible and get a good look at our mystery buyer," said Aqualad.

"On it," she pulled over her hood and disappeared.

_'Aqualad, sending you a telepathic image of the buyer now.'_ thought Miss M to Aqualad.

Aqualad shut his eyes and let Miss M's mental image fill his mind. "Sportsmaster! He is the buyer? Aqualad to Red Tornado, do you read?" He heard static. "Can't reach the League, Robin or Kid, comm's jammed." He groaned.

"If they're jamming comm. signals then that means they know were here and that they're probably going to looking for us." Creed told the others.

Aqualad and Superboy looked at Creed strangely. "What?" He asked, "This isn't the first covert mission I've done."

Shaking himself out of his surprise Aqualad said, "We need to figure out what our next move is."

"We should probably regroup outside the factory and decided what to do there," said Creed.

"I have a suggestion." Bane jumped down from the catwalk and ambushed two guards. One started firing which drew the attention of a big muscular creature, Mammoth.

Superboy and Mammoth charged at each other while the guards opened fire on Aqualad and Creed.

"Get behind me!" Aqualad formed a shield with one of his weapons while shooting through it with the other. From behind Aqualad, Creed threw a couple of knives at the guards, knocking the guns from their hands.

Miss M, still invisible, arrived and lifted away some guards with her telepathy when all of a sudden Sportsmaster threw a spear at her. She managed to move aside in time, but the spear exploded and she was sent flying, landing on top of the large containers.

Aqualad and Creed retreated behind another container just as more guards appeared behind them. Creed was ready to strike when KF appeared and kicked the guards away. Another squad appeared on a low catwalk in front of KF. He quickly took cover behind a pillar.

"Miss Martian, radio's jammed, link us up!" cried Aqualad.

_'Everyone online?'_ thought Miss M.

_'Yeah…'_ thought Superboy, with some resentment.

_'You know it beautiful.'_ flirted KF.

_'Oh shut up, KF.'_ thought Creed.

_'Good, we need to regroup.'_ thought Aqualad.

_'Busy now!'_ thought Robin.

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Robin jumped down from the roof of the building to the helicopter-landing pad.

"Batman must be desperate if he sends his whelp to task me," said Cobra.

"What's wrong Kobby? You look disconcerted." taunted Robin.

"This is beneath me, Shimmer, take him."

Shimmer moved to attack Robin, but he jumped over her to evade.

_'Robin, now!'_ thought Aqualad. Robin looked back at the factory for a second.

Shimmer moved to attack again, but Robin threw down a flash bomb and disappeared.

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Aqualad whipped a few soldiers with water. _'We need to regroup, Kid clear a path.'_

KF ran through a group of soldiers and knocked them down as the others followed. They ran back to the janitor's closet and through Bane's secret entrance. Superboy slammed it shut and they started running down the cave, but the door didn't hold Mammoth for that long.

"Superboy, the support beams!" shouted Aqualad.

Superboy punched the support beams and the cave collapsed behind them.

Aqualad cracked a few glow sticks.

"How could my first mission as leader go so wrong?" asked Robin to himself.

"Well, if that isn't the understatement is the year," remarked Creed.

"Hey at least I did something!"

"Did something? You left us behind so play solo hero!" shouted Creed.

"You are one of the most experienced, but perhaps that is exactly what has left you unprepared. Fighting alongside Batman, you roles are more…defined. You do not need to talk. But this team is new, and a leader must be clear and explicit. He cannot vanish and expect others to play a part in an unknown plan," said Aqualad.

"And so I'm supposed to hold everyone's hands?" shouted Robin.

"No, but you could at least keep us in the loop," replied Creed.

"Who was I kidding? You should lead this team Kal. You're the only one who can," said Robin.

"Please! I could run circles-" started KF.

"Wally, come on! We know he's the one, we all do," said Robin.

"It's so obvious," said Miss M.

"Could've told you," said Superboy.

KF thought for a moment. "Ok." He agreed.

"But what about Creed, aside from you Robin, he has the most experience. He's been trained from birth to do this sort of thing," reasoned Aqualad.

"No! Never again!" he quickly shouted.

"What's wrong?" asked Miss M.

"It's just, the last time I led a group to fight…it didn't turn out so well," he said with remorse. "But that'll be a story for another day; we have something more important to attend to. I agree with the others. You should be the leader."

"Then I accept the burden." Aqualad walked up to Robin and placed his hand on Robin's shoulder. "Until you are ready to lift it from my shoulders. You were born to lead this team, maybe not now, but soon."

Robin nodded in agreement.

"All right, our first priority is preventing that shipment from leaving the island," said Aqualad.

"Funny, I had the same thought," remarked Robin.

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The teens, now with a proper leader, raced down the cave to the exit.

"Sportsmaster is the buyer/supplier, but it still doesn't add up. He doesn't have the juice to acquire the Blockbuster formula or to get Kobra to do his dirty work." explained Robin.

"And neither of them have the chops to bond Blockbuster with Venom." said KF. "That took some major nerdage."

"We must also consider why Sportsmaster wants the Venom as well." Creed said.

"What do you mean?" Robin asked.

"I doubt Sportsmaster would use the Venom on himself, so who is he going to use it on and why?" Creed explained.

Once they got to the exit, Bane appeared. "Halt, niños. I'm feeling a bit explosive." He held a switch in his hands. Everyone looked above and saw explosive charges.

"You betrayed us, why?" asked Aqualad.

"Simple: I want my factory back."

"So I forced you into a situation where you would either take down my enemies, or die trying. If it was the latter, the Justice League would certainly have come to avenge their sidekicks. And when the smoke cleared, Santa Prisca would be mine once more. Blowing the tunnel with you inside should have the same effect." Bane stepped back just as KF zoomed past him and grabbed the button.

"With what? This trigger thingy?"

Bane moved to punch KF but Miss M lifted him with her telekinesis. Superboy walked under Bane.

"Finally, drop him." He said to Miss M. She obliged and Superboy knocked him out cold just as he fell. They tied him to a nearby tree so he wouldn't interfere anymore. "Guys, the helicopter's running again." said Superboy.

"Kid, get down there and stall them." said Aqualad.

"You got it!" KF put on his goggles and raced off, tackling many guards.

"Take the shipment!" cried Kobra.

Superboy jumped down and landed in a crater. "Go again?" he taunted Mammoth. Mammoth charged at him but was pushed away by a powerful stream of water, courtesy of Aqualad. "Sorry, not the plan."

Superboy prepared to punch the helicopter, but Sportsmaster reappeared and began shooting Superboy with a plasma gun. Miss Martian tried to sneak up behind him, but he was far too aware of her presence. He jumped up and grabbed her from behind just as she tackled him. He held her around the neck and continued shooting Superboy.

KF and Creed continued fighting off guards while Aqualad dealt with Mammoth. KF whizzed by a guard and grabbed his mask. "Souvenir!" he exclaimed.

Robin threw a bolas at Shimmer and she fell to the ground. "I know you hate getting your hands dirty."

"True. But sometimes, even a God must stoop to conquer." Kobra took off his hood, ready to face Robin.

Robin rushed up to knee him in the face, but Kobra grabbed his knee. Robin tried to sweep his feet and kick him in the face, but Kobra was far too skilled. Kobra kicked Robin back, but he recovered.

"What's wrong, boy? You look disconcerted," taunted Kobra.

"Hey baldy!" Kobra looked up at the direction of the voice and his eyes widened when he saw Creed jump of the warehouse and deliver a flying kick to the face. Creed quickly fell back to avoid Kobra's fists.

Kobra looked at Creed and said, "You dare harm a god!"

"Wow, I never thought I say this, but you're even more deluded than the Templar," taunted Creed.

Using it as an opening Robin charged Kobra, but Kobra saw it coming. Kobra grabbed Robin's fist and threw him into Creed. Both of them fell onto the ground.

Kobra walked over to them and said in annoyance, "I am plagued by mosquitoes."

"Good, because this mosquito is mighty concerted over your pain!" Robin jumped up and kicked Kobra in the chest making him take a few steps back.

Creed got up just as the others managed to arrive and prepared to fight. "Another time then," Kobra said looking at the team. Kobra backed up into the forest and disappeared.

"We picked the right guy to lead," said Robin, "Automatically making you the guy to explain this mess to Batman. Haha!"

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"A _simple_ recon mission. Observe and report," Batman lectured, getting in Kaldur's face.

The team was back at Mount Justice, receiving their first debriefing. Kaldur looked saddened and grim from Batman's scolding. So did the others. Even Robin looked a tad paler than usual.

"You will _**each**_ be receiving detailed reports demonstrating your _**many **_mistakes," Batman continued, going down the line. "Until then, good job," his scowl and voice softened slightly.

"No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. How you adjust to the unforeseen determines your success. And how you decide who leads, determines character," his voice echoed slightly as he walked down the cave's hall.

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	4. Chapter 4

**Enjoy!**

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Everyone was relaxing in the cave when Superboy returned from Metropolis.

"Hi Superboy, how was Metropolis?" greeted Megan.

Superboy ignored them, walking right through the digital air hockey table that Kaldur and Wally were playing on.

"Ready for training?" The teens looked down one hallway and saw Black Canary and Martian Manhunter.

"Black Canary, Uncle J'onn!" Megan ran over and hugged her uncle.

"M'gann, I was in the neighborhood and I thought I'd stop by and see how you are adjusting."

"A few bumps, but I'm learning!" she eagerly replied.

"That's all I can ask."

Superboy began leaving. "Stick around." Superboy stopped, turned and crossed his arms. "Class is in session." Black Canary stepped onto the arena floor as it lit up. She turned to the teens, with Superboy standing alone on the other side of the floor. "I consider it an honor to be your teacher. I'll be throwing a lot at you. Everything I've learned from my own mentors," Black Canary took off her jacket, wincing at the pain caused by her arm, "and my own bruises." She said rubbing her arm.

"What happened?" asked Megan.

"The job." She threw her jacket aside. "Now, combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never reacting. I'll need a sparring partner."

Nobody stepped up. Derek sighed, "Man you guys are a bunch of wussies. I'll do it." He stepped up to Black Canary and took up a fighting stance.

Without warning, Canary swung to punch Derek, but he easily moved to dodge and strike. The two continued engaging in a dance of punch and dodge.

"Impressive, you've been trained well," said Canary.

"I could say the same thing about you," replied Creed.

While they continue sparring, the boys and Megan just stood aside and kept watching.

"He is certainly very good at fighting," said Megan.

"Indeed, I didn't realize he was this skilled," said Aqualad.

Derek and Canary stepped back from each other. "You're fighting skills are excellent. I must say there is little more I can teach you." The floor lit up under Derek, showing the words "Creed. Status: Pass."

"I must meet your trainer. Who is he?"

"My father trained me, but he died a few years ago." He said curtly.

"I'm very sorry. He must have been very skilled," said Canary.

"He was." He looked down sadly. "He taught me everything he knew."

"Ok, who's next?" asked Canary.

"Right here! Yeah!" Wally stuck his hand into the air, finishing off his banana and tossing it away. He walked up to Canary. "After this, I'll show you some of my moves."

Canary swiftly punched Wally, who stuck his arm out to block her. She quickly turned around and swept Wally's legs, making him fall to the ground. The same grading system showed up for Wally, showing a fail instead of pass.

"Ow…that hurt." He muttered.

"Good block." Canary helped Wally up. "But did anyone see what he did wrong?"

"Oh oh! He hit on teacher and got served?" joked Robin.

"Dude!"

"He allowed me to take control of the battle."

"Oh please."

Canary looked over to Superboy.

"With my powers, the battle's always on my terms. I'm a living weapon and this is a waste of my time."

"Prove it."

Superboy walked up to Canary as Wally backed away from the pair. They both took a stance and Superboy punched. Canary easily dodged his attack to the side and grabbed his arm, flipping him across the arena.

Robin immediately pointed and laughed at Superboy. Aqualad quickly nudged Robin who covered his mouth, to quell his continuing laughter.

Superboy got up, the anger evident on his face. "You're angry, good, but don't react. Channel that anger into-" Canary was cut off when Superboy charged at her. She jumped over him and crouched when she landed, sweeping his legs. Robin laughed a little again.

Canary held out her hand to help Superboy up. "That's it! I'm done!" He smacked her hand away.

"Training is mandatory."

Batman interrupted them with a video call. "Batman to the Cave." Everyone gathered around the screen as Batman continued, "5 hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary. The attacker was capable of studying and duplicating the powers and abilities of its opponents. Arrow called in reinforcements which nearly proved disastrous, as our foe gained more power with each combatant."

"Whoa, one guy with the powers of the entire League?" asked KF.

_'So that's where Canary got her injury.'_ thought Derek.

"In the end it took four hours and eight Leaguers to defeat and dismantle the android."

"An android? Who made it?" asked Robin.

"We're not sure." replied Batman.

"The technology bears the signature of Professor Ivo." said Manhunter.

"Ivo? But Ivo's dead." said Aqualad.

"So we all thought, or hoped." said Canary.

"To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized; we're sending two trucks carrying the android's parts to two separate STAR labs in Boston and New York for immediate evaluation. Every precaution is being taken. We'll have four additional decoy trucks to create confusion if Ivo, or anyone, tries to recover the remains. You will split into two undercover teams to safeguard the real trucks."

"Yes! Road trip!" cried KF.

"So now we take out your trash?" remarked Superboy.

"You had something better to do?"

Superboy didn't respond.

"Coordinates received, we're on our way." said Aqualad. The teens left to get ready.

Canary stopped Superboy. "When you're ready, I'll be here."

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Young Justice met up with the League where the six trucks were being loaded. The team was stationed behind some bushes and trees, each mounted on their own motorcycle.

The trucks split off into two different directions of the highway. Aqualad, KF and Megan split off in one direction and Robin, Superboy and Creed split off in the other.

"Hey, if dislike is the opposite of like, is disaster the opposite of aster? So instead of things going wrong, they go right," said Robin.

"No because you can't use a suffix without a prefix," answered Creed

"Spoilsport."

Superboy said nothing. "Clearly he's not feelings the aster. What's wrong?" asked Robin.

"Canary, I mean what business does she have teaching combat to a guy with super strength?"

"Strength and powers don't matter if you don't know how to use them," said Creed.

"Taking down stronger guys is part of the gig. Canary learned that the hard way." said Robin. "Same with Batman and well, me."

Superboy ignored them and sped up to the truck.

All of a sudden a swarm of flying robot monkeys came out of nowhere and attacked the truck.

"Robin! Our truck's being attacked!" cried Aqualad via the radio.

"Yeah, kinda figured." He replied.

"I hate monkeys." said Superboy.

"Robot monkeys! Totally Ivo's tweak style." said Robin. He pressed a button on his motorcycle as the back half separated into a hovering gun turret. "Hey, switch your ride to battle mode."

"Don't need it." Superboy jumped off his bike and onto the truck. His bike turned and rolled to Creed and Robin. Robin jumped off his bike as Superboy's knocked it away while Creed easily swerved to avoid it.

Robin pulled out his cable and got on the truck. Robin kicked some monkeys off the truck while his turret shot at some. The monkeys easily got rid of the turret while Superboy tried his best to fight off the little creatures. Just as he ripped one in half, it shot lasers near his eyes, blinding him, making him unable to do anything to stop the monkeys from grabbing him and lifting him into the air, dropping him onto the road as the truck continued.

Creed drove up next to the truck and started to throw knives at the monkeys on the side of the truck.

Creed saw two monkeys head for the tires and shoot at them with lasers. "Tires!" Robin quickly understood what he meant and told the driver to get out. Robin grabbed him and jumped into the crop field as the truck turned and rolled.

The monkeys burst out of the back of the truck carrying the container of Amazo parts. Superboy got out of the truck rubble and saw the monkeys leaving. Superboy immediately jumped to go after them.

"Superboy!" cried Robin. Superboy didn't hear him and kept chasing the monkeys.

"Aqualad to Robin, we lost our cargo, did you-"

"It's gone. And so is Superboy." said Robin.

"Aqualad to Superboy. Radio your position, we can help you."

"I don't need help, don't want any!"

"Superboy?" asked Aqualad.

"I think he ditched his comm." said Robin.

"Super! Now we can't even track him." said KF.

"He's out of my telepathic range." said Megan. "This Professor Ivo, if he is alive, he seems to be two steps ahead of us. Maybe we should contact Red Tornado?"

"Tornado always told us to handle our problems on our own. And the mission can still succeed if we recover the parts before they're reassembled." said Aqualad.

"Well that's a great plan, except for the fact that we don't know where to look!" cried KF.

"Maybe we do." Robin walked over to one of the monkeys and inserted his computer cable into its back. "We'd heard by now if the decoy trucks had been attacked, so how did these monkeys know exactly which truck to target?" His computer interface popped up with a map showing their location. "Ha! The parts have GPS. The monkey's can track their signal, which means I can track theirs with the one I captured. Looks like the parts are converging on…Gotham City." He said with a worried look.

"That far south? M'gann and I won't get there anytime soon. I'm sending Kid on ahead to meet you. Aqualad out."

Creed rode up to Robin with his undamaged motorcycle

"I'll drive." said Robin.

"Excuse me? My motorcycle." He signaled for him to get on the back.

He swung the monkey over his shoulder and looked at the mess. "Definitely a disaster, heavy on the dis."

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Superboy jumped onto the cart of a moving train where he saw the monkeys take the Amazo containers. He ripped a hole in the roof and jumped down. He instantly heard monkey laughter as he saw them crowded on one side by a scrawny little man.

"Oh, hello." He said.

"You? You're Ivo?" laughed Superboy. "I'm whelmed."

"You're one to talk. Now since when does the big blue boy scout have a brat?"

"He doesn't." replied Superboy with some resentment.

"If you say so. Have you met my Mobile Optimal Neural Quotient Infiltrators?" The monkeys jumped to attack Superboy, who easily smashed them all to pieces.

"Oh and after all that trouble I went to find an acronym for M.O.N.Q.I." Ivo turned away as Superboy dealt with the remainder of the monkeys.

"Access Captain Atom." Superboy was suddenly shot back with a yellow beam.

"Since Professor Ivo's magnificent M.O.N.Q.I.'s don't float your boat, maybe my amazing Amazo would suit you."

"Give me your best shot." Said Superboy

"Please, my android has the strength of Superman. What chance do you have?"

Superboy suddenly charged, clearly enraged, and tried to punch Amazo, who easily blocked each of his strikes.

"Oh did I strike a nerve? Amazo, strike a few more."

Amazo swiftly punched Superboy and sent him flying across the cart. "Access Black Canary." Amazo opened his mouth and let out a glass-shattering cry. Superboy covered his ears and was blown away. "Access Flash." Amazo sped up to Superboy and lay out a swift assault of punches.

"Oh, no wonder daddy keeps you hidden away. You're not really doing any justice to the big S are you?"

Superboy punched Amazo again. "Martian Manhunter." Amazo suddenly went intangible, throwing off Superboy as he punched him through the wall and into a bulldozer strapped to the train. "Superman." Amazo lifted Superboy up and punched him, sending him flying straight into a school building.

Amazo looked at his master. "Finish him, priority Alpha." Amazo flew off after Superboy.

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KF suddenly caught up with Creed's motorcycle.

"Hey, you changed too?" asked Robin.

"You kidding? I feel naked in my civie clothes. You still tracking the signal?"

"They were heading through Gotham, but they veered." Robin brought up his computer interface and checked the signal's movement. "Wait, what the…? They're at my school!"

"Your school? Hey, KF maybe we'll finally be able to find out what Robin looks like."

"Hey, yeah! First one to find a picture of Rob wins! It can be the souvenir for this mission!"

"So what's school like?" asked Creed.

"Haven't you ever been to a school?" asked Robin.

"Nope, home schooled. It comes with being trained to be an assassin since birth."

"Man, you totally missed out," said KF.

"We're coming up to the school. Let's hope Superboy's there," said Robin.

They easily made out some smashed windows along with the sounds of breaking walls and glass. "Uh, I don't think we need to worry about that," said Creed.

"Looks like they're in the gym," said Robin.

Creed drove over and parked his motorcycle by the gym as KF raced into the building. Creed and Robin immediately followed after him. They arrived just in time to see KF save Superboy from Amazo who was about to crush him in a finishing move.

Robin threw a projectile at Amazo. "Martian Manhunter." The projectile went right through him and exploded when it hit the wall behind him. "Red Tornado." Amazo became surrounded by Red's red wind and blew the teen across the entire gym.

Amazo turned to KF. "Captain Atom." He held up his hand to shoot KF, but he easily sped away behind the bleachers. He zoomed around to get Amazo from behind. "Access Black Canary." Amazo let out a cry at KF sending him into the floor.

"Superman." Superboy tried to punch Amazo, but he easily blocked it and punched Superboy into the bleachers. "Martian Manhunter." Robin tried to throw a projectile again but Amazo stretched his arms, destroying them. Creed tried to attack from behind but Amazo turned intangible. "Black Canary." He swiftly recovered and delivered a sonic scream that threw Creed across the room. "Superman." KF ran up to Amazo, who grabbed him and was prepared to squeeze him to death.

KF cried out in pain as Amazo crushed him. All of a sudden a green arrow was shot out of nowhere. Amazo saw this. "Martian Manhunter." He turned intangible to avoid the arrow, dropping KF in the process, as the arrow struck the floor next to Robin. KF quickly got out of there.

"Access Black Canary." Superboy charged at Amazo from behind, but he easily flipped him into the bleachers similar to how the real Canary had done so earlier that day.

Robin threw his projectile and Creed threw a pair of knives at Amazo. Amazo easily dodged the attack. "Superman." His eyes lit up as he fired his heat vision at the pair. KF suddenly zoomed in and knocked them all safely behind the bleachers.

Superboy dug himself out of the bleachers and looked at the gym, his eyes drifting over to the beaten forms of his teammates.

"Oh, yawn." Superboy looked over to Ivo. "Normally Amazo would study and mimic your abilities during battle but what's the point, you're all such poor copies of the originals."

"So everyone keeps saying. IT MAKES ME ANGRY!" Superboy leapt to the bleachers Ivo sat on and punched them, Ivo having moved out of the way just in time. "WANNA SEE ME CHANNEL THAT ANGER?"

Superboy's shouting immediately alerted the others, as they sat up from their spot.

"Great, he's gone ballistic again," said KF.

"Maybe not." said Robin.

"Amazo, protect your master, priority Alpha!" Ivo jumped off the bleachers as Superboy punched the bleachers again.

"Captain Atom." Amazo shot Superboy as Ivo was preparing to escape via his monkeys.

"Anyone want to play keep away?" Robin knocked Ivo to the ground.

"Oh oh! I do!" KF zoomed across the gym floor.

"Superman." Amazo slammed his foot into the ground, sending a fissure that threw off KF into the bleachers.

Ivo tried to get away with his monkeys again, but Creed broke them with his blades. Ivo tried to run but Creed used his hook blade to catch Ivo's collar and pull him back towards the others. "If you leave now you'll miss all the fun."

Robin threw another projectile at Amazo. "Martian Manhunter." Amazo avoided the projectile. Superboy appeared right in front of him and moved his fist into Amazo's head. "Superman." Amazo lost his intangibility as his head reformed around Superboy's fist.

It only took a few seconds for Amazo's head to explode, and his body to fall over.

"Help me disassemble him. Now!" cried Robin, running over to Amazo's body.

"Dude, the guy has no head." said KF.

"Don't take any chances!" Aqualad and Miss Martian suddenly arrived. Miss M landed by Superboy and immediately helped him up.

"Superboy, are you all right?" she asked tenderly.

"Fine, feeling the aster." He said giving her a tender look. Then he looked at Robin after saying his 'word of the day.'

"Hey, where's Ivo?" asked KF.

Everyone scanned the gym, but there was no sign of him. "Wherever he is, he's long gone now," said Creed. "Let's get these parts to the Star labs and go home."

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"The Amazo android is in pieces again, safely being analyzed at the two separate Star labs." said Aqualad, delivering the team's mission report. "But Ivo escaped and since he originated the tech, it's arguable that he's more dangerous than before."

"Capturing the Professor will be a League priority." said Canary.

"But we understand that your mission encountered…other complications." said Manhunter.

The teens all looked at Superboy, who nervously looked away. He knew going off on his own was wrong.

"Complications come with the job." said Batman. "Your ability to handle them has impressed the League."

"The whole League?" asked Superboy, hopefully.

"Given time, yes. Kryptonians, as you know, have very hard heads."

Superboy smiled.

"Of course there's no shame in asking for help. That's why the League exists, because there are some problems that even the League can't handle on our own."

"Please, if we needed help, we'd never get the chance to ask." Robin pulled out the arrow that nearly saved KF. "Look familiar?"

Batman took the arrow and handed it to Green Arrow.

"You were following us, babysitting! You still don't trust us!" cried Robin.

"We didn't follow you," said Batman.

Green Arrow inspected the arrow and took one out from his quiver.

"The arrow heads are different," said Creed.

"And that's not your arrow," said Robin. "But that means…"

"Speedy!" cried KF.

"He has our backs." said Aqualad.

"Souvenir!" KF raced over to Green Arrow and took the arrow.

Superboy walked over to Canary. He cleared his throat to get her attention. "I'm ready."

"Good, because I'm here," she said, setting her hand on his shoulder.

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	5. Chapter 5

**I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

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"Recognized, Kid Flash. B03." Said the computer as Wally finally arrived, in full beach gear.

"The Wall-man is here!" he announced. "Now let's get this party star-" Wally tripped on all the gear he was carrying as his beach ball bounced right between Batman and Red Tornado. "-ted…"

"A little late for the beach party, don't you think?" asked Creed, who like everyone else was suited up.

"Wall-man huh? Love the uniform. What exactly are your powers?" asked a girl with long blonde hair in a green outfit.

"Uh, who's this?" asked Wally.

"Artemis, you're new teammate."

"Kid Flash, never heard of you."

"Um, she's my new protégé." said Green Arrow.

"What happened to your old one?" asked Wally.

"Recognized, Speedy B06"

"Well for starters, he doesn't go by Speedy anymore. Call me Red Arrow." said Red Arrow.

"Roy, you look-" started Green Arrow.

"Replaceable."

"It's not like that, you told me you were going solo."

"So why waste time finding a sub? Can she even use that bow?" asked Roy.

"Yes, she can." said Artemis walking up to Roy.

"Who are you!" cried Wally.

"I'm his niece/she's my niece." Artemis and Green Arrow said at the same time.

"Another niece?" asked Robin.

"What a coincidence." said Creed.

"But she is not your replacement. We have always wanted you on the team." Aqualad walked up to Red Arrow. "And we have no quota on archers."

"And if we did, you know who we'd pick." said Wally.

"Whatever Baywatch, I'm here to stay." She said to Wally.

Aqualad turned to Red Arrow. "You came to us for a reason."

"Yes, a reason called Serling Roquette."

"Nano robotics genius and Claytronics expert at the Royal University in Star City." explained Robin. He activated his computer interface, which brought up all the information on Roquette. "Vanished two weeks ago."

"Abducted two weeks ago by the League of Shadows." added Red Arrow.

"You want us to rescue her from the Shadows?" asked Robin.

"Hard core." said Wally.

"I already rescued her." said Red. "Only one problem. The Shadows had already coerced her into creating a weapon." Red brought up an image of some mechanical bug and a cylinder storage container. "Doc calls it 'the Fog,' comprised of millions of microscopic robots, nanotech infiltrators, capable of disintegrating anything in their path: concrete, steel, flesh, bone. But it's true purpose isn't destruction, it's theft. The infiltrators can store raw data from computer systems and deliver the stolen intel to the Shadows, providing them access to weapons, strategic defense, cutting edge science and technology."

"Perfect for extortion and manipulation, power broking. Yeah, sounds like the shadows." said Artemis.

"Like you know anything about the shadows." said Wally.

"You realize I haven't heard of half the villains we fight?" asked Creed.

"Yeah-but your different." Wally responded.

"How?"

"Yo-you just are!"

"Ahem…" Artemis cleared her throat.

Wally looked over to her. "WHO ARE YOU?"

"Roquette's working on a virus to destroy the Fog." continued Red.

"But if the shadows know she can do that…" said Robin.

"She'll be targeted. Right now, she's off the grid. I stashed her at the local high school's computer lab."

"You left her alone?" asked Green Arrow.

"She's safe enough for now." said Red.

"Safe?" Creed scoffed, "You left her unprotected in a public facility _anyone_ can access without means of communicating with her? You might as well paint a target on her back."

Red turned and glared at him, "Oh and like you know anything about stopping assassinations?"

Creed, unaffected by the glare, responded, "Yeah I do." Red remained silent and continued to glare at Creed.

"Then let's you and I keep her that way." said Green Arrow trying to diffuse the tension.

"You and I? Don't you want to take your new protégé?" asked Red, with some resentment.

Green Arrow walked up to console his former partner but Batman stopped him. "You brought this to the team. It's their mission, which means it's hers now too."

"Tch, then my job is done." said Red, making his way to the exit.

"Recognized, Speedy..."

"That's Red Arrow, B06 update." He said, before disappearing into the teleporter.

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After Red Arrow brought the mission to Young Justice and Wally got suited up the team made off to the Happy Harbor High School in Miss Martians' bioship. Miss M, and Superboy stayed outside to patrol the perimeter while the others joined Dr. Roquette in the computer lab.

_'Miss Martian, link us up. We do not want the Shadow intercepting our comm.'_ thought Aqualad.

_'Everyone online?'_

_'Uh…this is weird…' _thought Artemis, amazed by the telepathy.

_'And distracting. Coding a distributed virus algorithm on a kiddy computer with less RAM than a wristwatch is hard enough. Now I have to hear a team thinking in my skull!'_ Roquette grabbed her skull in frustration.

_'How ungrateful.'_ thought Creed.

_'What did you call me?'_

_'Ungrateful…we are risking our butts to protect you so shut up and work. You should be lucky a Brotherhood assassin wasn't sent after you. Our people get the job done and we get it done quickly and quietly. So count yourself lucky.'_ Creed shot Roquette a nasty glare, which made her return to working.

_'Annoying kids…'_

_'I heard that.'_

_'Lady do you always complain when someone tries to help you?'_ thought KF, eating another energy bar.

_'Pot, kettle, have you met?'_ thought Artemis.

_'Hey, hey I do not need attitude from the rookie who drove Red Arrow off the team!' _thought KF, pointing his bar at Artemis.

_'That is so not on me!'_ Artemis stood from the table and pointed angrily at KF.

_'Fate of the world AT STAKE!' _thought Roquette.

_'She started it!' _thought KF.

_'How about I just help Miss Martian and Superboy patrol the perimeter?'_ thought Artemis, leaving the classroom.

_'Good idea.'_ Thought Aqualad

_'You might want to cut her some slack. It was her arrow that saved you from Amazo.' _thought Robin.

_'What? No! That was Speedy, I mean, Red Arrow's…arrow…right?'_ thought KF.

_'Not so much.'_ Robin replied.

_'Well, I'm still not giving her the satisfaction.'_

_'You know I can still hear you!'_ thought Artemis.

KF grabbed his head in frustration. As useful as Megan's telepathy was…the lack of privacy did get annoying.

_'Smooth move, motor mouth.'_ thought Creed.

_'I couldn't get the Justice League…'_ thought Roquette.

_'The virus will not be of much use if we cannot find the weapon. Can you track it?' _thought Aqualad, walking up to Roquette.

_'My utility fog is not a weapon. It's science, brilliant science. And of course I can track it, but I'd have to go online.'_

'_She might as well rent a billboard with this address and write "Assassinate me!" in neon letters.' _Creed thought.

_'We will protect you.'_ thought Aqualad, putting his hand on her shoulder.

Roquette contemplated this for a moment before turning to the computer and pressing a button. _'Tracking fog now.'_

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Superboy walked around the back of the school and suddenly heard something. He jumped up to the roof and made his way to the front entrance where Miss M and Artemis, bow at the ready, were stationed.

Artemis looked at Superboy. _'Mm…that boy…' _Superboy looked at her, no emotion on his face.

_'He can hear you. We can all hear you.'_ Miss Martian thought jealously.

_'Oh, I know.'_ smirked Artemis.

_'Miss Martian, Dr. Roquette has located the Fog. Reconfigure the bioship so that Robin and Superboy can pursue.'_ thought Aqualad.

Miss M waved her hand and the bioship came down in front of them. Just as Robin came out of the building, Superboy joined him.

_'You embarrassed Superboy.' _Miss M thought as the ship left for Philadelphia.

_'Didn't hear him say that.'_

_'Must you challenge everyone?' _asked Miss M.

_'Where I come from, that's how you survive.'_ responded Artemis.

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KF stood outside the classroom where Aqualad, Creed and Roquette were located. Aqualad had sent him out there to guard the door in case the Shadows had sent someone after Roquette.

He suddenly saw a shadow move across the ground and zoomed down the hallway. He looked down each hall and saw something move in the pool area. He raced there but once he entered the pool, a ton of marbles made him slip on the floor. He banged his head on the tiles and passed out.

A figure kicked him into the pool and raced off after her target. She crept near the door and threw a shuriken at her target. Aqualad quickly jumped in the way as Roquette turned.

"Dr. Roquette, get down!" Roquette looked at the door. She saw a dark figure with a grinning cat mask. The figure threw more projectiles at Roquette. She screamed and Aqualad pushed her to the ground, taking the hits in his arm.

"Oh, that looked like it hurt." Cheshire walked out of the shadows with her sai to attack Aqualad.

Before she could attack Creed jumped out of the shadows in front of her. "Not as much as this." Creed then kicked her in the gut causing her to fly to the other side of the room. Turning to Aqualad Creed said, "Protect Roquette!"

Aqualad nodded as Cheshire got up and charged at Creed with her sai. Creed blocked it with his hidden blade and exchanged a series of blows with Cheshire as Aqualad called for the others.

_'M'gann, Kid, Artemis, we are under attack in the computer lab!'_

_'On our way!'_ thought Artemis.

Miss M suddenly stopped when she passed by the pool. She zoomed over to the pool and saw KF face down in the pool. "Oh no!"

She used her telepathy to lift KF out of the pool and set him on the tile. "Ok, don't worry Wally, you're gonna be fine. Miss M pressed her hands against his chest and breathed into his mouth. After a few more times KF suddenly coughed up water.

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Roquette backed away against the wall while Aqualad and Creed engaged Cheshire. Creed knocked her to the ground but she threw her Sai at Roquette. Aqualad turned his sword into a water whip and knocked it away so it only landed right next to her face.

"Almost, poison slowing you down?" Cheshire drew a dagger from behind her and continued fighting them.

Aqualad brought his face close to her mask. "Jellyfish toxin. I am largely immune."

Cheshire suddenly head butted him, knocking him to the ground. "Largely." She held her hand up, readying to execute Aqualad with her dagger when one of Creed's knives suddenly shot it out of her hand.

"You're actually making this interesting." Cheshire told him.

"Good." Creed said as he lunged at her. "I would hate to bore you."

"Such a gentleman." Cheshire said as she knocked Creed back. As she picked up her dagger to strike an arrow struck it out of her hand.

She whipped out an extendable sword and slashed away Artemis' arrows as she shot them. KF and Miss M finally arrived and Cheshire scanned her new opponents. "Maybe a little too interesting." She slashed away another arrow and threw down a smoke grenade.

KF had moved to tackle her but she had already disappeared and ran into Artemis. Their faces were close but they quickly pushed away from each other.

The smoke cleared. "Gone…" said KF, annoyed.

"You're letting her get away!" shouted Roquette.

"This is all your fault!" KF turned to Artemis. "You were on perimeter, how'd that Shadow get in!"

Artemis narrowed her eyes at KF.

"That's not really fair. I was outside too." said Miss M.

"Outside…being distracted by her! Besides I can't be mad at you." He smiled at Miss M. _'You gave me mouth to mouth.'_

_'We heard that!'_ thought everyone.

"Dangit!"

"I didn't do half as well during my first battle." Miss M walked up to Artemis and put her hand on her shoulder. "And I know you can't have been Green Arrow's sidekick for very long."

"Focus everyone, the Shadows will be back." said Creed.

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"Robin to Aqualad. We're over Philadelphia." Robin steered the ship over the city while showing a hologram of a building. "We've located the Shadows' next target: Star Labs."

Uh…I think we have a problem…" said Superboy, looking out the window.

"It's destroyed…" started Robin. "The Fog decimated it." Robin and Superboy stared at the crumbling building, marveled at how quickly it fell to pieces due to a swarm of nanobots. "This is bad, Star Labs is cutting edge science and now their secrets are in the hands of the enemy. What's our next move?"

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"Rescan for that fog." Aqualad said to Roquette. "We're relocating the doctor." Aqualad and the others relocated her to a small facility near the water. Aqualad, Artemis and KF stayed inside while Creed patrolled outside.

_'Stop it, both of you.'_ thought Creed.

_'What?'_ they both thought.

_'I can hear you glaring.'_ Creed ducked by a tree. "Miss Martian, stay in camouflage mode and do a wide perimeter sweep."

Almost instantly, Creed was pulled into the tree and thrown into a van. Creed quickly stood up as a dark figure emerged from the trees, Black Spider. Without warning, a man with a crane hook knocked him out from behind.

Cheshire appeared aside Black Spider and Hook. "The Martian could return any second and I'm not keen on evening their odds. We end Roquette now."

Black Spider burst into the room as KF ran to engage him. KF tried to sweep Spider's feet but he jumped up to the ceiling. He shot web at KF who dodged to the side and threw a trashcan at Spider. Spider jumped down and started a fistfight with KF.

Artemis readied her bow but heard someone behind her. She re-aimed at Hook, who ducked behind a bench. "Don't stop working." She said to Roquette.

Cheshire opened a window by the ceiling and aimed a crossbow at Roquette. She fired but one of Aqualad's water bearers knocked the projectile away. "Martian's not here! It's now or never!"

Spider pulled Aqualad of the way while Cheshire jumped down to Roquette. She ran away but Cheshire jumped onto her and she fell to the ground. Cheshire raised her Sai and prepared to finish her mission.

Roquette's skin suddenly turned green as her head spun around to face Cheshire. "We've been duped!" cried Cheshire.

Miss M flew up to the ceiling, returning to her regular appearance. "You'll never find Dr. Roquette!"

"Never's such a long time. Pursuing target, keep them busy!" Cheshire ran out of the building while her associates dealt with the teens.

Artemis saw this and gave chase. "Pursuing their leader, take the rest down!"

"You are soo not the boss of me!" shouted KF in return.

"Just do it!"

Cheshire exited the building and saw Creed's body disappeared. "Oh, I do not like being played…" The eyes of her mask suddenly lit up, showing Creed's footprints. She followed the path when Artemis caught up. Artemis fired an arrow, which Cheshire knocked away with her Sai. "I was hoping it'd be you."

Cheshire raced off and Artemis pursued. She fired another arrow at Cheshire, releasing a knock out gas. Cheshire coughed and fell to the ground. Artemis walked up slowly, but was kicked to the ground by Cheshire. "Mask has built in filters."

Artemis tried to kick and counter, but Cheshire held her arms from behind. "Better luck next time, kid." With a swift arm movement, Cheshire knocked the archer girl out.

A few blocks down the street from Aqualad, Miss M and KF, Creed stood guard by the front door of an internet café.

"I've almost got it." She said to Creed.

Creed heard movement above him. "We have company!"

Roquette finished typing. "Uploading now! And by the way, you said you're protect me!"

Creed readied his weapons as a smoke grenade rolled into the room, darkening the room. Creed shut his eyes and focused on listening for the assassin. Creed heard a creak behind him and a whizzing in the air.

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"Next target's a Wayne Tech facility. In theory it's system software could be used to hack the-" started Robin.

"The what?" asked Superboy.

"Doesn't matter. What matters is that Wayne Tech operates a 24 hours work force. We'll never evacuate the building in time!" cried Robin.

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Creed turned around and ducked, but one of the knives caught his hood and pulled it down, revealing his face. "Hm, you're cute. Now let's see how interesting you can make this." Cheshire said. The two charged at each other and exchanged several blows, but neither of them could best each other. "As fun as this has been I have an appointment to keep."

Cheshire managed to trip Creed and she turned to finish off Roquette, only for Creed's hook blade to catch her leg and pull her to the ground. "Sorry, your appointment has been canceled." Both assassins picked themselves off the ground and continued to fight for Roquette's life.

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Robin opened the door of the ship as they hovered over Wayne Tech. "It's downloading!" Robin eyed the download bar carefully on his computer.

Superboy looked down and saw a mysterious figure exit a van. "Don't need it!" He jumped out of the ship.

"Superboy!" cried Robin.

The man saw Superboy coming towards him and fired a laser at the Boy of Steel, knocking him a few feet back. He turned his attention back to the container and released the Fog.

"No!" cried Robin. He jumped out of the ship and began shooting his cable at the street lamps and swinging over to the front entrance of Wayne Tech.

The Fog easily ate a hole through the front door. Robin landed on the ground and ran into the building.

"What in the?" asked a guard after seeing the fog. Robin ran past him. "Hey! You can't come in here! Unauthorized entry!" The alarm suddenly sounded as a big gate prepared to close off the hallway.

"Wayne Tech override G4." The alarm stopped and the gate was slowly raised. It wasn't fully raised by the time they got to it so Robin had to roll under it. He didn't have any time to wait for the gate to be fully raised.

The first room they ran into was a cafeteria, weaving through the crowd of evacuating people. Robin ran over to a computer at the cashier.

"Who are you? What's going on?" cried the cash girl.

"No time to explain, you have to get out now!" shouted Robin. The cash girl wasted no time questioning the teen as she raced out after all the other evacuating people.

He plugged his computer in, ready to upload the virus. "Please be connected to the mainframe. Please be connected to the mainframe." Robin began typing furiously.

The screen on the cash computer suddenly turned red. Robin turned to the Fog behind him and saw them turn red as well. "Yes! The infiltrators have been outfiltrated."

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Roquette backed away from the fight but she had nowhere to go. Creed blocked a dagger Cheshire threw at Roquette, who cried out in fear and looked at the computer.

Cheshire followed her gaze and saw the upload bar fill in. "So you finished the virus."

Creed continued, "Eliminating the reason for your elimination."

"Oh, cute _and_ witty. I would normally try to kill you for fun, but my orders are clear. You live to program another day. After all, doctor, the Shadows may find another use for you."Creed let Cheshire escape, knowing he was to tried to subdue her alone.

Cheshire turned the corner when four arrows suddenly landed in front of her and exploded, blowing off her mask.

Artemis reappeared and aimed at Cheshire. "Don't move a muscle." She said as Cheshire stood up.

"Wow, I am completely at your mercy." She said, turning to Artemis.

Artemis' eyes' widened. "You…"

"I suppose now you bring me to justice and let your new friends interrogate me. I wonder if you're position is secure enough to survive them learning **everything** I know." Cheshire smirked.

Artemis glared at Cheshire, before lowering her bow.

"Didn't think so." Cheshire let a few smoke grenades drop. "So like the Cheshire cat, I'll just disappear…oh and tell the cute boy in the hood I said hi" She walked back into the smoke and once it cleared, she was gone.

Roquette came outside, helping a weary Creed. "Artemis, where's the assassin?"

"She uh-she got away."

"Oh from you? Big surprise!" KF said, racing down from the other building. "Notice, we got ours." Miss M flew down, holding Black Spider and Hook with her telepathy.

Artemis walked away from him, ignoring his words.

KF looked to the ground and saw the mask. "Cool, souvenir." He said, picking it up.

"Her mask? Did you see face?" asked Creed.

"It was dark."

"It's fine. Robin and Superboy neutralized the Fog and Dr. Roquette is safe. Thanks in no small part to you." said Aqualad.

Artemis turned to face them. "Welcome to the team." Aqualad said to her. Artemis smiled. He walked up to her and they shook hands.

"I've always wanted sisters. Well, on Earth I mean. I have twelve back on Mars, but trust me, it's not the same." said Miss M.

"I wouldn't know, but thanks." Artemis smiled.

Miss M elbowed KF. "Ow. Yeah, welcome." Artemis held out her hand and he hesitantly shook it.

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Artemis exited an old telephone booth that connected her to the Cave. She stepped into the alley and heard movement, quickly drawing a bow and pointing down the hall. "Step into the light! Now!"

"Nice move." Red Arrow stepped into the alley. Artemis lowered her bow. "Almost made me believe you are Green Arrow's niece. But we both know you're not."

Artemis narrowed her eyes at Roy.

"Still, I'm sure GA and Bats have a reason for lying. So you're cover's safe. But I warn you," he leaned in close so she could hear his next words, "do not hurt my friends."

He turned away and walked out of the alley, leaving Artemis to contemplate his threat.

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**Review please!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you for the reviews. **

**To answer the question, Derek/Creed does not have eagle vision.**

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The teens were hanging out in the Cave. It had been quiet for more than a week with no missions from the League. Robin, however, still got some action back in Gotham City as the Boy Wonder with Batman.

Superboy and Kal were training on the light up combat field. Superboy was shirtless, earning him looks from Megan and Artemis while Kal was in his regular hero clothes. As the boys began sparring, Derek was making some caltrop bombs to refill his stock and Wally was eating as usual while the girls commented on the fight.

"Kal's nice, don't you think? Handsome, commanding, you should totally ask him out." said Artemis. "Or Derek," She added.

"They're like brothers to me. But you know who would make a cute couple? You and Wally," sang Megan as the girls looked over to Wally who was munching on a burrito. "You're so full of passion and he's so full of…"

CHOMP! Wally took a bite of his burrito.

"It?" asked Artemis causing the girls to laugh.

The girls were pulled out of their thoughts when Superboy flipped Aqualad. He patted his hands. "Black Canary taught me that."

Aqualad stood up as Red Tornado exited the room directly above them. Wally raced over to him as the others slowly joined. "Do you have a mission for us?"

"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility." Tornado answered.

"Yeah, but the Batman's with the Robin doing the Dynamic Duo thing in Gotham. But you're headed somewhere right? Hot date? Or a mission?" asked Wally, pointing his fingers in a bro-like manner.

"If we can be of help." added Kal.

Tornado turned and brought up a computer interface showing an old man in a suit with a cane. "This is Kent Nelson, a friend. He is 106 years old."

"Guy doesn't look like a day over 90." whispered Wally.

"He has been missing for 23 days. Kent was a charter member of the Justice Society, a precursor to your mentor's Justice League." The image changed to a man in blue and gold wearing a gold helmet.

"Of course, Nelson was Earth's sorcerer supreme, he was Doctor Fate." exclaimed Kal.

"Heh, more like doctor fake, the guy knows a little bit of advanced science and Dumbldore's it up to scare the bad guys and impress the babes." remarked Wally.

"Kent may simply be on one of his walkabouts, but he is caretaker to the Helmet of Fate, the source of the Doctor's mystic might and it is not wise to leave such power unguarded." finished Tornado.

"He is like the grand priests and priestesses of Mars. I would be honored to help find him." said Megan.

Wally's hand immediately shot up. "Me too! So honored that I can barely stand it. Magic rocks." He said, giving a thumbs-up to Megan.

"Take this," Tornado held out a key, which Kal took. "It is the key to the Tower of Fate."

Wally scooted over to Megan. "What are the chances that we both so admire the mystical arts?"

"Not very likely if you ask me." whispered Derek to Artemis, making her laugh.

The teens didn't bother suiting up, or in Derek's case removing his trench coat, as they headed into Megan's bioship and took off to the coordinates given by Red Tornado.

"So, Wally, when did you first realize your honest affinity for sorcery?" asked Artemis.

"Well, I don't like to brag but before becoming Kid Flash, I seriously considered becoming a wizard myself." He said, propping his arms behind his head.

Derek grinned and asked, "So did you get a letter from an owl?"

"We've reached Tornado's coordinates but…" started Megan, lowering the ship to an open field.

"Nothing's there." finished Superboy, seeing no sign of any tower.

"Take us down." said Aqualad. Megan landed the ship in an empty parking lot and they all exited. "Kid do a perimeter search and report back to us."

Wally zoomed around the town and returned within a matter of seconds. "Nothing, this isn't simple camouflage."

"So what do you think? Adaptive micro-opto-electronics combined with phase shifting?" suggested Artemis.

"Absolutely…" Wally seemed surprised at her scientific knowledge, a smile forming on his face. "Not!" he quickly added when Megan walked up to them. "Uh, clearly mystic powers are at work here…"

"Clearly…" remarked Derek.

Aqualad pulled out the key that was in his pocket. "A test of faith…" He turned the key over and read the inscription, 'insert.' He walked up ahead of the group. "Stay behind me." He stuck the key into mid air and turned, causing a tower to suddenly appear. While the others stared wide-eyed at the tower, Aqualad pushed the door open and the others followed him.

They entered some sort of medieval decorated room and looked around. There were torches on the wall, lighting the room.

"Uh, where'd the door go?" Superboy asked what everyone was thinking.

A hologram of Kent Nelson suddenly appeared in front of them. "Greetings, you have entered with the key but the Tower does not recognize you. Please state your purpose and intent."

Wally looked back at Megan before smirking. "We are true believers here to look for Doctor Fate!" he boasted, holding up his arms.

The hologram's expression softened as it disappeared. The bricks of the floor suddenly gave out as the teens plummeted into a chasm filled with lava. Megan grabbed Wally and floated while Artemis pulled out a handheld crossbow and shot it at the surrounding rock walls. Derek used his hook blade to hold him up by lodging it in the side of the wall.

Superboy dug his fingers into the earth, clawing at the rock to try and slow his descent. He dug his feet in and slowed down just enough but his feet were dipped into the lava. He cried out in pain but lifted his feet out of the lava. His boots were melted right off and the bottom of his pants were singed. "Those were my favorite boots…" he said angrily."This Nelson guy better be worth it."

"Having trouble..." Megan suddenly fell a bit but caught herself and Wally. "…maintaining altitude." She wiped a bead of sweat off her brow. "I'm so hot…"

"You certainly are…" flirted Wally.

"WALLY!" shouted Artemis.

He turned to her. "Hey! Inches above sizzling death here so I'm entitled to speak my mind!"

Aqualad wiped his forehead too. "My physiology…and M'gann's are susceptible to heat. We must climb out quickly."

"Hello Megan!" Megan lightly slapped her forehead. "We never truly answered the question." She held her hand by her mouth to amplify her voice. "Red Tornado sent us…to see if Mr. Nelson…and the Helmet…were safe!"

The lava was suddenly being closed off by a panel. Superboy let go and landed on the floor as the others followed. Aqualad bent down and put his hands on the floor. "This platform…it should be red hot…but it is cool to the touch."

"Don't worry Megalicious, I've got you." Wally put his arm around Megan's shoulder.

"ENOUGH!" Artemis walked over and pushed Wally off Megan. "You're little 'Impress Megan at all costs game nearly got us all barbequed!"

"When did this become my fault?" he asked.

"Because of your motor mouth genius," Derek replied.

"When you lied to that, whatever it was, and called yourself a true believer!" replied Artemis.

"Wally…you don't believe?" asked Megan, slightly hurt.

"Fine, fine! I lied about believing in magic! But magic is the real lie! A major low!" he crossed his arms in frustration.

"Wally, I studied for a year at the Conservatory of Sorcery in Atlantis. The mystic arts created the skin icons that power my water bearers." said Aqualad.

"Dude, you ever hear of bioelectricity? Hey, in primitive cultures, fire was considered magic too. Today it's all just a bunch of tricks."

"You're pretty close minded for a guy who can break the sound barrier in his sneakers." said Artemis.

"That's science. I recreated Flash's laboratory experiment and here I am! Everything can be explained by science."

"Let us test that theory." Aqualad grabbed a handle on the platform.

"Wait! The back draft from the lava will roast us alive!" cried Wally.

Aqualad ignored him and opened the floor panel. A rush of cold air filled the area as specks of snow floated out.

"It's snow." said Megan with delight.

"It's snow." Derek said at the same time with much less enthusiasm.

"Do you ever get tired of being wrong?" asked Artemis.

They jumped into the hole and came out right side up as if the hole was parallel to the way they were standing. The door glowed yellow before closing and disappearing.

Wally turned to the other. "Well?" Artemis asked.

"Ever heard of String Theory? We're in a pocket dimension." replied Wally.

"Ugh!"

"Hey, what's that?" Megan asked pointing to a floating cane as the others turned around.

"Oh, maybe it's Nelson's magic wand." sang Wally. Wally and Artemis reached for the wand.

"Wait don't it's probably-" Derek started.

Ignoring him, Artemis and Wally grabbed the cane. "I got it." They both said. They tried to pull apart. "What? I can't let go!" They both said together again. The cane began glowing and lifted them up into the air and disappeared.

"-Booby trapped." Derek finished.

"Where did they go?" asked Megan.

"Must be somewhere else in the tower, we should find a way out of here to search for them." said Aqualad. They all began walking through the soft blizzard of fluffy snow. It was a light blizzard, so it wasn't cold. At least it wasn't cold enough for them to need warmer clothes.

"I don't understand Wally; it's almost like he needs to believe that the impossible can't happen." said Megan.

"Wally uses his understanding of science to control what he cannot comprehend. Acknowledging the existence of magic would be to relinquish the last vestige of that control." explained Aqualad.

"You can't change people who don't want to change." said Derek.

A strange sound alerted the teens and they looked over to a doorway that suddenly appeared with a small set of stairs.

"Finally, a way out. I hate the cold." said Derek as they all made their way to the stairs.

Like with the last door, Aqualad, Derek and Superboy fell right through while Megan landed gracefully. They came to a room filled with stairs as a giant bell stood in front of them. Wally, Nelson and Artemis were there and Artemis ran over to them.

"You guys ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, we're good." replied Derek.

"Friends of yours?" Nelson asked Wally.

Wally suddenly pulled Nelson to the ground when lightning nearly struck them. He looked up and saw Abra Kadabra and Klarion the Witch Boy. "Friends of yours?" asked Wally. Wally pulled Nelson out of the way while Kadabra attacked again.

Nelson led Wally over to the bell and tapped it with his cane. It rung and glowed gold. "In here." Nelson pulled them into the bell as Klarion grabbed his cat and followed after them.

Kadabra waved his wand and trapped Superboy and Aqualad in lightning cages. Artemis and Derek shot their respective projectiles at Kadabra.

"Art, keep him distracted!" Artemis nodded at Derek who jumped across to another set of stairs.

'_Wally, we're in trouble! Tell Kent we need Doctor Fate!'_ thought Megan.

Artemis fired at Kadabra, who knocked the arrow aside and trapped her in a lightning cage. Derek managed to come up beside Kadabra but he caught him in the corner of his eye and trapped him in a lightning cage, then Megan.

Kadabra walked over to the trapped teenagers and held up his wand, preparing to finish them off. All of a sudden, a golden ankh appeared behind Kadabra and when it faded, Kadabra was unharmed and in his underwear. The teens were freed and Superboy faced Kadabra.

"Show's over." He said, before punching Kadabra in the face.

"Ok, now that we one, how do we get out of here?" asked Derek.

"Don't know." replied Artemis.

"Let's just hope that Kid and Doctor Fate managed to defeat the other one." said Aqualad.

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Wally stood in his room of "souvenirs," placing the Helmet of Fate onto the shelf next to Cheshire's mask. He stepped back, admiring his collectables as well as remembering the promise he made to Doctor Fate to find him a new host body.

"Ahem." Wally turned and saw Artemis leaning against the doorway. "You never said what happened…when you put on the helmet."

"Energy from the thing rewrote my brain's beta waves, I was bioscrapped into becoming Doctor Fate for a couple minutes. No big."

"Wait, you're still claiming there's no such thing as magic? Uh, if that's how you feel, why keep it at all?"

"Souvenir."

"Geek!" she exclaimed, walking off.

Wally turned back to the Helmet, remembering what Nelson had said to him before the Helmet was taken off. _'Find your own little spitfire, one who won't let you get away with nothing. For example that…'_ He didn't catch the last part.

Wally put the thought out of his head as Megan walked by. "Hello Megan!" he cried, following after her. "Guess who got us two tickets to a magic show?"

"I can't believe he's still milking this magic thing for Megan." said Artemis with a hint of resentment.

"Oh you just want him to take you." said Derek.

"What? No I do not!" Artemis replied, crossing her arms.

Derek just smirked and replied, "_Sure_ you don't."

"**I Don't Like Wally**!"

"Your face is telling a different story," Derek said, pointing out her reddening face. Derek began to walk away but before he left the room he said, "Just give him some time, he'll figure it out eventually." Derek left the room leaving behind a fuming Artemis.

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**Sorry this chapter was short, but to make it up to you next chapter someone important from Creed's past makes an appearance. **


	7. Chapter 7

**I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did writing it.**

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The team returned to the cave with Batman. Aqualad, KF, Superboy, Creed, Robin and Miss Martian had been sent on a mission in Gotham City, Batman and Robin, the Dynamic Duo's home turf. The teens were covered in mud from head to toe.

"That could have gone better," Creed remarked.

"I'll say," Robin agreed.

Batman turned to the mud covered teens. "I need to talk to Aqualad alone; the rest of you hit the showers and head home."

"Head home? I am home," remarked Superboy.

The other teens dispersed until Aqualad and Robin were left. "Just Aqualad," Batman said to Robin.

Robin looked at Aqualad with surprise, but left after looking back at the secret conversation Batman was about to have with the team leader.

"I am sorry you have to intervene. I know the team performed poorly…" started Aqualad.

"The team performed adequately. The problem was you. You are their leader and your head wasn't in the game," said Batman.

"No! You are…" Aqualad sighed. "…correct. Of late I am not even convinced that I belong on the surface world. For so many years, it filled my every thought, but now that I am here, my dreams are of Atlantis."

"Atlantis? Or someone you left behind?"

Aqualad looked up surprised. Batman was good, very good.

"You can split your time between the surface and the sea, but you can't split your mind. Either you're here 100% or you need to walk away. Make a decision Kaldur, and make it soon."

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"Greetings, Kaldur'ahm," greeted Aquaman in Atlantian, as Aqualad exited the teleporter that connected the surface to Poseidonis.

"King Orin," said Aqualad, saluting his King.

The King and his protégé swam through the hall of the main building.

"The Queen and I are hosting a dinner party tonight. You will attend?" he asked.

"My king, there is someone…special…I had hoped to visit tonight."

"You may invite a friend."

"Thank you, my King."

"Until tonight then." Aquaman and Aqualad went their separate ways. Aquaman was headed towards the heart of the palace while Aqualad made his way to the Conservatory of Sorcery. He arrived in time to view a sparring match between Garth, his best friend, and Tula

"Your technique is excellent," complimented Queen Mera, "but your choices remain predictable. The combat of sorcery demands…improvisation," she said, trying to find the right words to describe it. She turned her head and saw Aqualad swimming towards them. "Kaldur'ahm, so good to see you!"

Tula and Garth turned and saw their friend approaching them. "Kaldur!" cried Tula.

Aqualad swam up to them and saluted the Queen. "Apologies, my Queen, I did not realize I was interrupting."

"It is well, I have another class. Will I see you at dinner?"

"Yes, your majesty."

"We shall talk then." Mera swam off and left the friends to catch up with each other.

"You look well, Kaldur." Tula hugged him.

"Yes, surface life agrees with you," said Garth.

"You speak as if I have been gone for years, but it has only been…"

"Two months," Tula and Garth finished for him.

"That long…then I must make up for lost time." Aqualad turned to Tula. "Tula, would you accompany me to dinner tonight at the palace?"

Tula looked at Garth for a quick second before turning back to Aqualad.

"I wish I could invite you too, my friend," Aqualad said, laying his hand on Garth's shoulder.

"I made that choice long ago."

"We, uh, have another class. But I will see you tonight." Tula pulled Garth away by his arm and they swam off.

"You have to tell him," said Garth.

"I will…when the time is right," Tula responded.

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Megan sat at the kitchen counter, flipping through the cookbook and trying to decide what to make for dinner. Derek was reading a book and Superboy sat on the couch, just staring at the static on the TV.

"Would you like me to turn that on?" asked Megan.

"No," replied Superboy.

"Well, would you like to help me make dinner?"

"No." Superboy stood up and joined Megan in the kitchen despite his answer.

Megan smiled. "Um…let's see," Megan walked over to the island, holding the book with her telepathy. As she recited ingredients, she used her telekinesis to bring the ingredients to Superboy. "We'll need brown sugar, a little butter…"

Superboy caught both items with his hands.

"…some salt, cooking oil, vinegar, a few eggs, couple tomatoes, some milk, a bowl of flower and two cups of…" Megan stopped reading when she heard the dishes clang.

She turned and saw Superboy holding the milk in his hand while the bowl of flour was on his head. The milk had spilled onto him and some of the tomatoes smeared his face and clothes.

"Opps," she said meekly, bringing a washcloth into her hand via telekinesis. She sped over to him and knocked the bowl off his head before dabbing the milk off his shirt and dusting off the broken eggshells. "I'm so sorry, I should've paid more attention! It was too much at once, too much at once! Hello Megan! That's so me…I, uh…" Megan stopped when she moved to wipe his face.

She looked into his eyes as he looked back, not moving or saying anything. She felt her heart pounding faster and her face heat up as her body was so close to Superboy's.

A loud beeping noise ruined the moment.

Derek's eye widened was he looked down under his trench coat to see is Assassin insignia glowing red and beeping loudly. _"An alarm."_ Creed thought gravely.

"Derek, are you ok?"

Megan's voice brought Derek out of his panic. "Yeah…I'm fine." Getting up Derek took off his trench coat and headed for the hanger. "I need to go." He told Red Tornado as he ran past the android.

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After getting his motorcycle Creed began racing to the source of the signal. _"Ok, the alarm would have only sounded if the Assassins in base were unable to stop the attack. So who or what could defeat an entire base of Assassins?"_

Creed pulled his motorcycle off the road and down into the forest. After several minutes of driving he came to the face of a cliff and stopped. Creed got off the motorcycle and walked over to the cliff. Where a disguised door once stood was now a gaping hole with pieces of crumpled metal surrounding it.

Creed walked down the passageway and came to a room and stopped at the sight of it. The computers were smashed, the chair in broken heaps and small pools of blood covered the ground, but no bodies. As Creed walked to the pools of blood he realized that something wasn't right, the pools were too… perfect, for a lack of a better word, to come from a wound, and looked as if someone had just put blood there, and the computers seemed off as well. Someone capable of taking down a base of Assassins would surely be capable enough to realize that the information inside the computers would be valuable and avoid damaging them. And now that he thought about it the damage to door to the base was strange as well. The wreckage was on the outside as if someone had blown it from within. _"This whole thing looks faked, but that would mean that it's a…trap!"_

Creed turned towards the door just in time to see a security door come down and lock. Creed heard metal striking metal very lightly behind him, and the whoosh in the air as a weapon descended on him. Creed rolled to the side just as a spear impaled the ground that he was just standing on.

Creed turned around and looked at his attacker. He was tall, with broad shoulders and large muscles. Black mesh armor was underneath thick grey armor plating that covered his body. A grey metal mask covered his face only showing his two grey eyes.

"I see you have improved boy," The man said in a deep monotone voice as if the person he was addressing was barley worth his time, a monotone voice that Creed knew _very _well.

"_You."_ Creed practically snarled at the man, now recognizing who was underneath that mask.

"Come now, is that any way to treat your uncle?"

"You're _not _my uncle."

"Of course I am Derek, oh my bad, _Creed._" The man spoke condescendingly.

"My uncle Vald died the day he became _you_." Creed shot back.

Vald rolled his eyes, clasped his hands behind his back and said, "Stop being so dramatic, I just want to talk."

"About what?" Creed asked, not dropping his fighting stance.

"About your loyalties," Vald said. "I want you to join me." He continued bluntly.

"You killed my father, your own _brother_, and betrayed the Brotherhood, why would I _ever_ join you?" Creed snarled.

Vald just shrugged his shoulders, "Nobody's perfect."

That pushed Creed's anger over the edge. The fact that Vald was completely unmoved by the fact that he killed his own brother and left his own nephew fatherless angered Creed. With a yell Creed threw a punch at Vald's face, completely intending on smashing it in.

However Vald waited until the last moment before impact before his hand shot up, grabbed Creed's wrist and threw him across the room. Creed quickly got up and threw several knives at him. Vald merely sidestepped and allowed the knives to strike the wall. "Impressive, _unless_ that was meant for me." Creed charged at Vald with his fist raised and attempted to hit Vald in the face again, only for Vald to stop his fist with his hand and twisted Creed's arm into a very painful position behind his back, immobilizing Creed in less than a second.

Creed managed to grunt out, "We… will stop… you."

Vald laughed and asked, "_We?_ If you and your friends do catch me, then I'll tell them about what happened that day, and how you couldn't save them." Creed froze at the thought of that, what would they think of him. Vald brought his face up behind Creed ear and whispered, "If you aren't going to join me, then _stay out of my way_, or else the next time we meet I won't hesitate to kill you and your little friends."

Vald then threw Creed to the ground. By the time Creed got up and turned around Vald was gone. The security door pulled up, giving Creed an exit route. Creed walked out the door knowing that if he even did find Vald he wouldn't be able to beat him alone. As Creed started his motorcycle he idly wondered how the other's day had gone and how he would explain his day.

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"Let me get those," Barry Allen, aka the Flash and Wally's uncle, zoomed around the table, grabbing all the dishes and clearing the table, "And that and those…"

Wally just finished what was on his plate and stood up as Barry snatched the plate and emptied the load in the kitchen.

"And that," said Barry as he took Wally's dish.

"Thanks Uncle Barry," said Wally.

Wally got up and followed his uncle into the kitchen.

"You're a lucky lady, Iris. Our Wally certainly isn't that fast. Not when it comes to clearing the table," said Wally's mom, Mary.

"Mom!" cried Wally from the kitchen.

"Neither is my Jay," Joan quickly patted her husband's hand before continuing, "I know, I know, you're a retired speedster and since it's your birthday, we won't argue."

Barry came in with a chocolate cake that had one candle lit. "Wally's fast when he wants to be; we're suddenly out of ice cream."

"Wally!" nagged Mary.

Wally suddenly stopped eating the ice cream, the spoon still in his mouth. "Uh…happy birthday!" he sang nervously.

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Artemis sat in her apartment where she was tweaking with her arsenal of arrows. Suddenly, the television was turned off. She looked up and saw her mother enter the room.

"This came in the mail for you!" she cried, holding out an opened letter to Artemis.

"You opened it? Mom!" Artemis snatched the letter.

"Oh, just read it!" she squealed.

Artemis read the letter and looked back at her mother. "I've been awarded a full Wayne Foundation scholarship to Gotham Academy. But…I didn't apply."

"It's not that kind of scholarship, you qualify or you don't." Artemis' mother rolled over to her in her wheelchair. "Gotham Academy is very prestigious, you should be thrilled!"

Artemis crumbled up the letter and tossed it onto the coffee table. "Yeah, I'm not switching schools. All my friends are at Gotham North." Artemis returned to her arrows.

Her mother flattened the letter and snatched away her arrow. "You're going," she said, handing her the letter, "or you give up your extra curriculars."

Artemis stood over her mother and took the arrow back. "Mom, don't make threats you can't enforce."

Her mother quickly grabbed her wrist. "Artemis, this is chance to better your life!" she cried, slamming her hand on her wheelchair. Artemis looked at her mother, who was now in tears. Remembering what had happened to confine her to a wheelchair she said, "A chance I never had…"

Artemis bent down to her mother's level and held her hand. "Ok, mom, I'll go. I'll go for you."

Her mother looked up, still teary eyed, but smiled and the mother and daughter hugged.

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"A gigantic echinoderm frozen in ice, but still alive," spoke Prince Orm at the dinner. "Of course, our data is still very limited. But Dr. Volko thinks that the creature is very promising."

Aqualad leaned over to Tula. "I am considering rejoining you at the conservatory."

Queen Mera overheard and joined their conversation. "You realize you left your studies some time ago. Your sorcery skills have not kept pace. You would no longer be a part of Tula's class…or Garth's."

"Then perhaps I will require a tutor," said Aqualad, looking at Tula.

Aquaman and Mera stood up and held hands.

"We have an announcement," began Aquaman.

"I am with child," Mera finished.

"Oh that is wonderful!" Tula leapt forward and hugged Mera fiercely.

"Congratulations," Aqualad shook his mentor's hand, "an heir to the throne at last." Prince Orm stood up. "Apologies Prince Orm, I did not mean…"

"No fear, Kaldur. No one could be more thrilled than I." Orm swam over to his brother and embraced him.

"Thank you, brother. Thanks to you all." The King and Queen shared a kiss while everyone celebrated the good news.

After dinner, Aqualad swam alongside Aquaman, who was going to the teleporter. "Batman has made me aware of your…dilemma. I know from personal experience that it can be difficult to live there…and love here." They reached the teleporter. Aquaman turned to his protégé and put his hand on his shoulder. "I am confident you will make the right choice."

Aqualad saluted his King as he disappeared into the teleporter. Later that evening, Aqualad and Tula swam through the coral reef gardens.

"There is something I must-" They both laughed nervously.

Tula made a move to speak, but Aqualad stopped her. "Please, Tula. I have made a decision: to stay in Atlantis with you," he said, taking her hand in his. "Because of you."

Tula looked down sadly and turned away, pulling her hand out of Aqualad's. She held her arm nervously before speaking, "Kaldur, I'm sorry. We wanted to tell you sooner, but…Garth and I…we are…together."

Aqualad looked down sadly but was brought out of his thoughts when explosions were heard all across the city. Buildings and pillars crumbled and fell over onto innocent civilians.

Aqualad and Tula spotted a group of armed invaders firing on the Atlantean guards who were trying to help civilians out of the debris. Tula fired a blue bolt at the intruders while Aqualad slashed them with his water bearers.

"We must find the Queen!" cried Aqualad.

Aqualad and Tula made a dash for the palace where Queen Mera and Prince Orm were trying to hold off the intruders. Tula sent another bolt that took out most of the intruders in a vast explosion while Aqualad took care of the rest.

"This attack was planned with precision. The explosions lured patrols into ambush," explained Aqualad.

One by one, the Atlanteans took out the invaders with their sorcery by knocking over pillars to crush the intruders.

"Tula!" Tula turned and saw Garth swimming towards her. Her eyes widened when she saw one of the soldiers point their gun at Garth's back.

"Garth!" Tula rushed over to Garth and moved him aside as the shot struck her in the back. She cried out in pain, before falling limp.

"NO!" Garth quickly grabbed Tula as she went limp in his arms.

"Tula!" cried Aqualad, seeing the girl of his dreams being shot down. He rushed over to her and Garth as another wave of soldiers opened fire on them. Queen Mera quickly reacted, summoning a huge octopus with her sorcery. Octopus tentacle tattoos appeared on her face and arms and with a wave of her arms, the tentacles swatted and grabbed onto the soldiers.

"Surface communications have been cut off. We cannot reach King Orin, summon more troops to the palace," said Prince Orm.

"The palace was not to the only target. I witnessed explosions in sectors 1, 2, 3, and 5," said Garth, as Tula rested in his arms and lap.

"Nothing in sector 4? Explosions all over the city except where the science centre is located, where your giant sea star is secured," deduced Aqualad.

'Then it was all a diversion. With the King away, I must protect the Queen and the heir," said Orm.

"I need no protection! Go!" declared Mera.

"No, Mera. If you suffered any injury, my brother would never forgive me."

"The Prince is right, my Queen. This battle is mine," Aqualad began to swim off to the Science Centre.

"And mine," said Garth.

Aqualad turned to his best friend. "Your place is with Tula." Aqualad swam off past the soldiers as Prince Orm and Queen Mera held them off. He reached the observatory as a large manta ray-shaped ship hovered over the Science Centre. He pressed a few buttons and the doorway opened for him.

He heard movement behind him and quickly placed his hand on his water bearer. He relaxed when he saw that it was Garth.

"You should be with Tula."

"The Queen watches over Tula and sent me after you," said Garth.

Aqualad didn't respond and simply entered the Science Centre followed by Garth. They slowly and carefully swam down the hallway, ready to attack at any given moment.

"You have a plan?" asked Garth. He looked around, but Aqualad had disappeared. "Kaldur?" He turned to his left and saw two soldiers appear, ready to open fire on him.

Kaldur suddenly appeared and whacked the soldiers with his water bearers, which were shaped like maces.

"I too have my studies," said Aqualad. "Help me get their uniforms off, we can use them to sneak past the other soldiers to the echinoderm." Aqualad and Garth took the uniforms off the guards and grabbed their weapons. Dressed in the soldiers' outfits, they managed to sneak past the guards and into the main chamber. They saw Black Manta look their way and Aqualad gave a salute so as not to draw attention to them.

They swam over to the cable strapped around the frozen echinoderm and pretended to be examining the cable. Black Manta approached them.

"Impressive, is it not?" asked Black Manta. "Aqualad."

Aqualad quickly turned and fired at Black Manta, Garth joining in. Black Manta easily predicted this and dodged, shooting red lasers from his eyes, destroying the weapons they took from the soldiers.

Aqualad threw off his helmet and drew his water bearers. He held up the swords to block Black Manta's beams and turned one into a whip, pulling the soldiers to shield the attack.

"Such a waste, you really have no ambition other than serving Aquaman? Aren't schools of others willing to die for your King? This fool, for example." Black Manta fired at Garth, who had just gotten his helmet off.

Aqualad reacted quickly and pulled his friend out of the way with the whip. They floated behind a pillar where Aqualad pulled Garth up against the wall.

"Garth! Get your head in the game!" Aqualad swam out, shielding himself with one water bearer. Garth used his sorcery to summon a whirlpool that blew away many of the soldiers.

Black Manta's ship suddenly broke through the ceiling and lowered a hook to hoist the echinoderm to the ship. Aqualad slashed at a few more soldiers, before moving to attack Black Manta, who kicked him away.

"Forget about them! Get the job done!" Black Manta shouted at a soldier next to him.

Aqualad charged at Black Manta and began fighting him while Garth was pinned behind a pillar, trying to take out the soldiers who were firing on him.

"Garth! The cable!"

Garth looked out and saw a soldier connect the hook to the cables as the echinoderm was hoisted upward. He sent a small ball of lightning shooting at the cable, cutting it loose. It crashed into the ground. Some of the ice encapsulating the echinoderm shattered and one of the arms became free of ice.

Black Manta heard the crash and saw the arm twitch. He dashed over to the starfish, but Aqualad grabbed him with his whips. Manta broke free.

"If I can't have it, no one can!" He turned and fired a pair of small torpedoes at the starfish. The explosion rang through the Science Centre as Garth quickly formed a protectively shield around himself and Aqualad. Once the explosion died down and the boys looked up to see Manta's ship leaving.

"Our city was heavily damaged and many innocent Atlanteans were injured. But it could have been far worse," said Aquaman, putting his hand on his wife's abdomen. "I am grateful to you all."

Prince Orm held a container in his hand. "This contains all that survived. It is already regenerating. The creature requires further research but with the dome compromised and the Science Centre in ruins, we cannot safely secure or study it in Atlantis." Orm looked at Aqualad. "Perhaps, the surface world can do better."

"I'm sure they will be eager to try," said Aquaman. "Kaldur?"

Aqualad stepped forward and saluted Aquaman. "Call me Aqualad, my King."

Aquaman, Mera and Orm returned to their duties. Tula and Garth remained behind to speak with Aqualad before he would return to the surface.

"Kaldur…I…we…" started Tula.

Aqualad put his hands on Tula and Garth's shoulders. "I wish you both nothing but the best." Tula hugged him as he walked into the teleporter with the container. Before fully stepping in, he turned back and addressed Garth. "Have you ever wondered what would've happened if I had stayed behind and you had become Aqualad?"

"Never," answered Garth.

"Neither have I," Aqualad disappeared into the teleporter and entered the Cave. Batman was there, working on the computer interface.

"Made your decision?" he asked.

"The decision is made. I am here, 100%," replied Aqualad.

"Just in time for your next mission," said Batman, as the other teens, dressed in their hero attire, entered the room.

"The Watchtower detected an immense power surge in the Bialyan dessert. We're sending you to collect any data that might explain the power surges. Report back to us with anything you find.

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**So what did you think of Vald? **

**Review please!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Enjoy.**

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Night had fallen upon the Bialyan desert as Miss Martian lay unconscious on one of the dunes. She slowly came to and sat up, looking at her surroundings, trying to figure out where she was. She looked up at the full moon and ran her fingers through the sand.

"Hello Megan! I'm on Earth!" she exclaimed, standing up and walking through the sand.

'_But how did I get to Earth? I'm pretty sure I was on Mars…and why am I wearing this costume?' _She rubbed her head. _'And why does my head hurt?'_

She tripped on the sand and tumbled down the dune. She sat up and rubbed her head. _'Is this a dream?'_

All of a sudden something crashed right next to her, blowing sand in all directions. Miss Martian held up her arms to keep the sand from getting into her eyes. Once the wind died down, she looked up and saw a muscular boy with dark hair in regular jeans and a black T-shirt. Her eyes drifted to the shirt with the red S on it.

"Wait…I've seen that symbol before. Are you…Superman?" she asked meekly.

The boy ripped off his shirt and let out a vicious battle cry. He jumped to attack her but she evaded. He tried again but she managed to escape by flying into the air. He jumped after her. Miss Martian created an invisible force field to stop him, but when he came in contact with it, the force of the impact blew them both back to the sand. The boy jumped away, leaving Miss Martian alone.

"Not a dream…a nightmare." She said, wrapping her arms around her knees.

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The sun had finally risen on Bialya as Robin wandered through a rock formation. He had just regained consciousness so he was a bit weak. He looked up when he heard the sound of a vehicle. He turned to his left and saw smoke in the distance and quickly took cover from the approaching jeep. The soldiers passed right by, unaware of his presence.

"Those are Bialyan Republican Army uniforms. But what are Bialyans doing in," He pulled up his computer interface on his wrist, "Bialya?" He looked carefully at the GPS to make sure it wasn't malfunctioning. "Ok, better question, what am I doing in Bialya?"

He looked closer and noticed the date. "In September? What happened to March? Better radio Batman." He pressed his finger to the comm in his ear.

'_Maintain radio silence at all times…'_ Batman's voice echoed in his head.

Robin stopped, "or not…" He walked over to the edge of the rock he was on and jumped down to the sand. Something black caught his eye as he noticed a piece of black fabric with a red S on it.

"Superman? Is he here? I thought his costume was blue…something strange is going on here."

The sound of a rock falling caught Robin's attention, but before he could turn around a blade was pressed against his throat and an arm pinned his arms to his side.

"Who are you?" The stranger asked.

Robin didn't answer immediately. He was too shocked by the fact that someone had snuck up on _him_ to answer. The only person that had done that before was Batman! "Uh…Robin."

"Okay Robin, what are you doing here?"

"Look I don't know. I woke up with no memory of what happened and apparently it's September!"

"September? What happened to March?"

"That's exactly what I said."

Robin was relieved when the stranger released him from his grip. Robin turned around to get a good look at him. He was wearing a strange outfit with various weapons on it and a hood that covered his face, only showing his mouth.

"So where are we?" The stranger asked.

"Bialya."

"How did I end up in Bialya?"

Robin replied, "I don't know, but I bet we could find out." Robin held out his had to shake. Robin couldn't see the stranger's eyes but he felt like he was being scrutinized.

After a moment of hesitation the stranger shook his hand. "My name is Creed."

"Ok Creed, apparently I left a GPS marker that way more some reason, so we should probably head that way.

Creed shrugged and said, "Beats getting lost in the desert."

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"Hey…beautiful, wake up," whispered Kid Flash.

Artemis' eyes fluttered open as she rubbed her head. She propped herself on her elbows, seeing that she was in a run-down shack. A boy in a black suit with orange hair and green eyes sat in front of her and smiled when she came too.

Artemis instantly jumped back against the wall, grabbing her bow and quiver.

"Hey, hey, it's ok. I won't hurt you. I'm one of the good guys," he said, trying to calm her down. "You know, Kid Flash," he said, pointing to himself while making a hero pose.

"I've seen Kid Flash on the news and he doesn't wear black," replied Artemis.

"Uh, a little unclear on that myself. What about you? Green Arrow fixation?" he asked.

Artemis looked down at her clothes. "Who put me in this?" She screamed.

"Wow…I'm not gonna bark up that tree. So, you know how to use that bow?"

"Yeah, my dad taught." Artemis' expression suddenly turned to anger. "Dad! He must've done this," she said looking at the bow and arrows, "another of his stupid tests!"

"What kind of test?"

"He probably wants me to kill you," replied Artemis casually.

Kid Flash's eyes widened in shock at what she said. But before he could keep questioning her, he heard a whistling sound that grew louder. It sounded like something was falling from the sky.

KF quickly grabbed Artemis' hand. "Come on!" he cried, running out of the shack with Artemis in tow. Just as they got out of the shack, something hit it from far above and it exploded. The force of the explosion blew KF and Artemis forward and into the sand.

They looked back and saw tanks slowly approaching them as a jeep was racing towards them. They started running as the jeep opened fire on them. Artemis quickly dove forward, drawing an arrow from her quiver and firing it at the jeep. The arrow exploded on the jeep and sent it flying over them. She took cover behind some rocks, preparing to fire back at two more jeeps.

KF put on his goggles and raced over to Artemis. He scooped her up in his arms as she fired another arrow and raced off. "Sorry, they've got bigger arrows."

KF looked behind him and saw the tanks open fire. He zig zaged in a serpentine formation to avoid the explosions until they were finally clear.

"Thanks," said Artemis.

"Hey, I told you, good guy. Not to pry, but what's your name? And what's this about you killing me?"

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_'I'm actually on Earth! I can't believe it! I've wanted this for so long, even if it's not exactly like I saw on TV,'_ thought Miss Martian as she flew through the desert. She stopped by some withered trees, _'But why can't I remember how I got here?'_

She levitated by the trees, cross-legged. _'Concentrate…remember…'_ She closed her eyes and reopened them, now glowing.

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_"Good idea, go."_

_"Be careful," said the boy who attacked her._

_"Careful Superboy, they're hot!" she cried, holding a tray of freshly baked cookies. A boy in yellow dashed over and snatched the cookie from Superboy._

_"Not as hot as you babe." he said._

_Superboy shot the redhead an upset look for stealing his cookie, but grabbed another off the tray._

_"Um…thanks Wally, that's, uh, sweet?"_

_"Not as sweet as you, sugar." Wally said again._

_"Oh grow up!" A blonde girl in green knocked Wally in the back of the head. She grabbed a cookie._

_"Yeah, that was the worst pickup line that I've ever heard." Said a boy in a black uniform who also grabbed a cookie. _

_"And there are a lot of bad ones out there." Added a short boy in black and red with a cape. He wore a mask that covered his eyes._

_"Team, report to the mission room."_

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"I'm on a team! I have friends! And a Superboy who might be…I need to find him! I mean them!" Miss Martian began flying high above the desert, looking for any sign of her friends.

_'Uh…hello? Team? Can anyone hear me?'_ But there was no response.

"Maybe they're just out of my telepathic range."

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Kid Flash raced along the desert with Artemis in his arms. Once they were far enough away from the soldiers attacking them, he set her down. He panted heavily, trying to catch his breath.

"Sorry, running on empty. Don't think I've eaten in a while." He opened a small storage area on his wrist guards, but there wasn't anything inside. "We've been out here for over 24 hours, otherwise my cupboards wouldn't be bare."

All of a sudden, something landed between them, casting a huge cloud of sand over the area. The shirtless boy who landed roared before punching Kid Flash into the rock wall. The boy turned to Artemis, who jumped back and shot an exploding arrow at the boy. It didn't slow him down so she shot two more arrows at the charging boy. Once he got too close, she jumped to the side as he punched the ground.

Artemis heard a familiar whistle sound as a tank fired right at Superboy. The impact blew Artemis to the ground but Superboy seemed unfazed. Artemis got up and grabbed her bow, ready to fire if the boy attacked again.

However, the boy simply charged at the tank and began tearing it apart.

"Who's side is he on?" asked Artemis.

"You wanna stick around and find out?" asked KF.

"Do you honestly need to ask?" KF scooped Artemis up like before and they raced off. He raced down a sand dune, but tripped on a rock. Artemis fell out of his arms and they rolled down the dune. Artemis landed on her back with KF top of her.

"Ugh, get off!" she cried, pushing him off of her.

Two planes flew through the air and began firing at Artemis and KF.

"Get down!" he cried over the loud noise of the bullets. He put his arm around her and did his best to shield her from the bullets. The ships turned in the air and prepared for another attack.

Artemis pulled out an arrow and aimed at the ships. _'Don't worry I'm almost there!'_ The mysterious voice in her head shocked Artemis causing her shot to go wonky.

"Did you just hear a girl talking in your head?" she asked a bit scared.

"Girls are always on my mind. But they're not usually talking."

A girl with green skin and orange hair in black and blue flew up to the ships and with a clap of her hands they collided and exploded. Miss Martian flew down to Kid Flash and Artemis.

"Whoa, J'onn, the costume looks familiar but the new bod doesn't exactly scream 'Manhunter,'" said Kid Flash.

"You know my uncle J'onn? Hello Megan! Of course you do! You're Kid Flash, Wally. And you're Artemis," said Miss Martian.

"Wait, wait, wait, you're Martian Manhunter's niece? Is that how you know my name?"

"You're name's really Wally?" asked Artemis causing Wally to groan.

"It's ok! We're teammates, friends! I made you all cookies."

"You know her?" asked Artemis, narrowing her eyes.

"No, I swear, beautiful. I've never seen her before in my life!"

Miss Martian sighed. "You both lost your memories too." The three teens looked in the distance as vehicles migrated over to a giant cloud of smoke where a battle was likely taking place. "Come on, I'll fill you in on the way. Robin, Creed and Superboy need our help."

"Of course, Robin and who now?" asked KF.

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Robin, and Creed ran through the desert. The sun had just set making it easier to avoid detection by soldiers.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" asked Creed.

"Positive, I just wish I could remember why I put a GPS marker here," replied Robin.

They came up to an open field where a large piece of machinery stood. They quickly took cover behind a small hill of sand.

"Huh, maybe that's why…doesn't look like anyone's there," said Robin.

"How much you wanna bet that it's a trap?"

"Agreed, we'll have to be ready."

They jumped over their cover into the open just as soldiers rose up from the sand. They shouted something in a foreign language.

"Called it," remarked Creed.

"Hey, we never actually made a bet." Robin threw down smoke grenades as he and Creed easily took care of the endless sea of soldiers.

"You're not half bad, almost as good as I am," said Creed.

"You're pretty good too." He smiled at her.

Once the smoke cleared, the soldiers opened fire on them, forcing them to evade. All of a sudden, a black blur zoomed through the crowd of soldiers and took away all their guns.

"I'll hold that…thanks!" KF dropped all the guns he collected and helped Robin and Creed fight off the soldiers.

Robin turned, ready to throw projectiles at approaching soldiers when they were suddenly thrown away by an unseen force. He and Spear looked up to see Miss Martian. Artemis appeared and shot an arrow releasing ropes, which securely tied fleeing soldier's legs.

"Friends of yours?" asked Creed.

"KF!" cried Robin, shaking hands with Kid Flash in a bro-like fashion. "Man it's good to see a familiar face!"

"Hey Rob, memory loss?" he asked.

"Six months! Let's hog tie these creeps and compare notes."

"So who's your friend?" asked KF.

"Derek! Oh, it's so good to see you!" cried Miss Martian.

"What the? How did you know my name?"

"We're friends! You live in the Cave with Superboy and me. We're part of a team!" explained Miss Martian.

"A team? That doesn't sound like me…"

"So we're a team, huh?" asked Robin.

"Yes, the 5 of us and Superboy," answered Megan.

"Then this must belong to him." Robin pulled out the black fabric he found when he came too.

"Yes!" she said, snatching the fabric. "Did you see him?"

"I think we did," said Artemis.

"Feral boy? Some teammate, he attacked us," said KF.

"He didn't know who we are," said Artemis. "I don't know who we are!"

"I remember Batman ordering radio silence," said Robin. "Our team must work for him!"

"And how do you know we don't work for **my** mentor," said KF, tapping his insignia. All of a sudden, his outfit changed to it's regular yellow and red. "Whoa!" he cried as he tapped it again and again and again.

The others saw this and tried tapping their own insignia's but nothing changed.

"We look ridiculous!" cried Artemis. She looked over to KF who was still tapping his insignia. "Quit touching yourself!"

"Why? Did you want to do it?"

"Oh shut up! We need our memories back!"

Miss Martian thought for a moment. _'To help Superboy…_' She put her hands on her head and her eyes began glowing white.

Suddenly, the teens found themselves in a purple-colored filled with shards of scenes from their memories.

Miss Martian appeared before them. "I've brought you all into my mind to share what I've remembered so far. But I need your help. Together, our broken memories can form a whole…if you open your minds to me."

"You want to pop through our private thoughts?" cried Artemis.

"I have no wish to intrude, but…"

"You need to hack our brains to figure out what happened, got it. Go." Said Robin.

"My brain's all yours. Try not to let its brilliance overwhelm you."

"Or underwhelm you. Hey, why isn't anyone ever just whelmed?" asked Robin.

"No, because you can't use a suffix without a prefix. Whoa, I just had a serious case of déjà-vu," said Creed.

Artemis was unsure of letting Miss Martian poke around her head. There were some things she didn't want people to know, especially if these people were apparently her friends. She looked at Wally, who stood next to her and held her hand, reassuring her that it would be fine.

"Last six months…and only what you need!"

Miss Martian nodded and held up her hands where blue streams shout out and connected her hands and head to the others' heads.

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"_The Watchtower detected an immense power surge in the Bialyan desert. Spectral analysis revealed elements non-terrestrial in origin. Find out what happened at that sight and what landed there. Bialya is a rogue state, ruled by Queen Bee and not a member of the UN's charter. All communications are subject to interception. Maintain radio silence at all times. You'll land in Qurag, just along Bialya's border."_

_Creed was looking through binoculars. "All clear," he said as Superboy unloaded something from Megan's ship._

"_The Bialyans control the site." said Artemis as they examined a nearby campsite._

"_Set up here." Superboy dropped what he was carrying and turned a knob, opening the piece of machinery he was carrying._

"_We'll be up and running in no time," said Robin, typing away._

"_Jackpot! The site's lousy with radiation waves," said KF._

"_Detecting non-terrestrial trace elements from that tent," said Robin._

"_I'll check it out in camouflage mode," said Megan._

"_Good idea, go."_

"_Be careful," said Superboy._

"_And maintain telepathic communication."_

"_I will, Aqualad."_

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"Aqualad!" They all cried.

"Where is he?" asked Robin, "What happened next?"

"I don't know! That's the last thing that I-we collectively remember," said Megan.

Artemis and Wally quickly looked down at their interlocking hands and pulled them away.

Wally casually rubbed the back of his head. "We landed 24 hours ago. If Kaldur's been wandering the desert for that long…that's not good for a guy with gills."

"Now that I know to look for him…" Robin pulled up his computer. "He's close! But he's not moving."

They followed Robin's directions and finally found Aqualad. He was unconscious and mumbling something in Atlantean.

"I can't restore his memories in this condition," said Megan.

"He needs immediate rehydration. Call the bioship," said Robin.

"It's out of range, but you can get him there fast." She said to KF.

"He's too heavy and I'm too low on fuel. Right now, I couldn't even carry her," he said, pointing to Artemis.

She knocked his hand away. "Why not just levitate him back?"

"I can't. I have to find Superboy. Six months ago he didn't exist, he has no memories. He's acting on animal impulses. I'm the only one who can help him."

"We don't have time for this. Superboy's indestructible, just ask those tanks. It's Aqualad who needs your help, like now!" cried KF.

Megan suddenly grabbed her head. "NO! Superboy's in pain!" She flew off before any of the others could even stop her.

"M'gann, wait!" cried Artemis.

"We still don't know what erased our memories! It could happen again!" cried Robin.

Megan pulled her hood up and went invisible. She easily avoided the guards and entered the tent. Superboy was strapped to a machine that was administering electrical shocks while a sphere-like object was strapped to a similar machine. She knocked aside the scientists and shut down the machine.

"Well, you're a glutton for punishment aren't you?" Megan turned around and saw a scrawny, pale man in a brown cloak addressing her. _'Psimon says…forget…'_

Megan clutched her head and found herself in a crop-field like world, with objects floating all over the place.

"Yes, forget…just like last time."

Megan shielded her eyes as a white light blinded her. _'Last time…'_

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_Megan entered the tent as the scientists crowded around a sphere._

'_I'm in.'_

'_Good, but tread carefully, camouflage is not invisible," thought Aqualad._

'_They're testing something,' she thought, as the sphere began spinning as it was shocked with electricity, 'but it's alive…in pain! Hello? Can you hear me?'_

'_I can.'_

_Megan suddenly scanned the tent for who was intercepting her telepathic link._

'_And an open mind is a dangerous thing…'_

'_Someone's hacked our link!'_

'_Psimon can't hear you. Psimon can't see you. But Psimon can make you all…FORGET!'_

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'No! I won't let it happen again!' Megan used her telepathy to push back the white light that was slowly consuming her.

"Not really your call, little girl." Psimon's head suddenly appeared and he fired a black stream at her. She held up her arms and shielded herself from the attack. "You have potential, but you are too…raw, too untrained." The Psimon head suddenly opened it's mouth and Psimon emerged. "Not at all in my league." He fired another blast and broke through her shield.

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Wally and Creed pulled Aqualad through the desert on a makeshift mat. He was in no shape to move so they had to be careful. Robin had his computer open, leading them back to Megan's bioship.

"Quick! Over there!" he cried, pointing to a large rock wall. They quickly hid behind it as two jeeps with soldiers drove by.

"Great, just what we needed," said Creed.

"We can't risk a fire fight with Aqualad KO'ed like this," said Robin.

"It's not just him, I'm way out of juice," said KF.

"And I'm almost out of arrows," added Artemis.

KF looked over and saw that Robin was gone. "Man, I forgot how much I hate it when he does the ninja thing."

"What are you talking about, didn't you see him leave?" Creed asked.

"No. Hey, you never said why you're dad may want you to _grrkk_ me," he said turning to Artemis, while moving his finger across his neck.

"I-uh, got confused by, uh some old ninja movie I saw the other night about a ninja girl, whose ninja dad ordered her to kill her ninja boyfriend because he belonged to a rival ninja clan," she said, waving her hand trying to change the topic.

"So…I'm your ninja boyfriend huh?" asked KF.

"Hey! Amnesia, remember? Forgot how truly annoying you are."

"Oh, like you're the goddess of congeniality?"

"Yeesh! Get a room!" Robin suddenly reappeared alongside them.

"Dude! Where were you!" cried KF.

"Breaking radio silence." All of a sudden, they could hear Robin's laugh in the distant being replayed over and over. The soldiers heard it too and headed towards it. An explosion suddenly rang out.

"That's our cue, let's move!" cried Robin.

"You know, there's something very familiar about that creepy laugh of yours," said Creed.

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Superboy opened his eyes and saw things in the tent. Some of the objects looked blurry in one spot. He closed his eyes and activated his infrared vision, revealing a floating figure that was invisible to his normal sight.

The sphere suddenly began rotating at such a great force that it broke free from it's restraints. It rammed into Superboy's restraints, freeing him, as the scientists fled the tent.

Superboy punched Psimon but a shield threw him back. He suddenly felt his hand touch something and he was in a field with buildings and objects of all sorts floating around him. Next to him was the girl he had attacked earlier.

"You're here!" she cried.

Psimon laughed. "You sound so relieved. Is this mindless creature supposed to save your mind?"

Megan put her hands on Superboy's face and pulled him close to her, pressing her head to his. "No, I save his!"

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'_We are trying to help you!'_

'_I was just trying to be part of the team.'_

'_You did all right.'_

'_It's simple, get on board or get out of the way.'_

'_Hey Superboy, come meet Miss M.'_

'_I like your T-shirt.'_

'_Hello Megan!'_

'_We'll uh, figure something out for you. The League will I mean…duty calls.'_

'_The Watchtower detected an immense power surge in the Bialyan desert.'_

'_Forget…'_

'_I'm so sorry, I should've been paying more attention. It was too much at once, too much at once! Hello Megan! That's so me…I, uh…'_

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Superboy pulled away from Megan but then smiled. "Kick his butt." Megan smiled as he then disappeared from their mental battlefield.

"By all means," laughed Psimon, "kick my psychic butt."

Superboy found himself back in the tent as Megan and Psimon stayed perfectly still, dueling in their minds. He saw more soldiers come in, but the sphere that freed him ran over and beeped at Superboy.

"Uh…thanks."

Another wave of soldiers entered and began firing on Superboy and the sphere. He punched each soldier as they tried to attack him when all of a sudden a green whirlwind enveloped Megan and Psimon, sucking up everything in their vicinity. He jumped into the whirlwind and landed next to Megan.

"M'gann!" he cried, grabbing a hold of her hand, sending him right back to their mental fight.

Once she saw him at her side, she smiled. "He's too strong!"

"You're strong. And I'm stubborn. Together," he said, giving her a tender look.

"Together."

She nodded at him and smiled before turning back to Psimon. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" She cried, thrusting hers and Superboy's hands forward as her final attack struck Psimon directly.

The green whirlwind expanded and destroyed the tent, sending things flying across the desert. Being in the eye of it, Superboy and Megan were spared such a fate. Megan, exhausted, fell back into Superboy's open arms.

Megan opened her eyes and felt Superboy's strong arms around her body. She looked into his eyes and smiled faintly. He smiled too and put his hand on her face, pulling her close to him before moving to her.

They both stopped and looked up when they heard the sphere roll towards them. It made another beeping noise.

"Can I keep it?" asked Superboy.

"Ok, but you have to clean up after him," she joked.

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Aqualad lay on a table with a tube connected to his arm. Artemis walked over and laid a wet cloth on his forehead.

'_Hey everyone! I've got Superboy and he's back to normal. We're on our way.'_ thought Megan.

Aqualad suddenly shot up, fully awake. "Who are you? And how did you get inside my head?"

"Shh, it's all right Aqualad, we're friends," said Artemis, pushing Aqualad back down gently.

'_Hello Megan! Aqualad's memories. I knew I forgot something!'_

'_Aw man! Me too! I forgot to get a souvenir from the mission!' _thought KF.

'_Don't worry, I've got the souvenir thing covered.'_

'_Oh what is it? Is it a piece of the bad guy's uniform? Something from the desert?'_ asked KF.

'_Oh you'll have to see it first and trust me, this won't fit on your souvenir shelf.'_

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**Please review! **


	9. Chapter 9

**I know that you have been waiting over a month for the next chapter and I wish I had a better excuse than "I was busy" but I don't. But seriously this last month has been pretty hectic for me with vacation, doing summer work, school starting and a bunch of other assorted things I'm not going to get into right now. **

**Okay now that that's done I can get to the next important thing right now. I have decided my OC's romantic interest will be. I'm not going to tell you right now, but after reading this chapter I think it will be pretty obvious. **

**In regards to my updating, because of school I don't have hours and hours of free time to write stories, so I won't be able to update as fast as I use to. I'll try to get at least one chapter every 2-3 weeks, but I make no promises. **

**And last, but certainly not least, thank you for your reviews! I am taking your comments into consideration as I work on the story. **

**Okay I think you've read enough of me ranting so let me disclaim this and you can start reading.**

**Disclaimer: I only own my OC Derek/Creed. SO DON'T SUE ME!**

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Roy stood behind a column dressed in a suit with a suitcase grasped tightly in his hand. The Rhelasian peace summit was under way and a mysterious arbitrator was on his way. He pressed a button on his earpiece.

"Aqualad," his voice rang in his ear.

"Red Arrow. I need access to the Justice League's data base and the exact height of the League assassin known as Cheshire," replied Roy.

"Checking…Cheshire is 1.67 meters," he said.

"Um…"

"She is 5"6' and exceptionally dangerous," added Aqualad. "Do you require backup?"

"Please," Roy scoffed. "The last thing I need is help from the Junior Justice League."

"Just our computer," remarked Aqualad.

Roy's glasses quickly scanned the height of all the women in the crowd until he found the only one that stood at 5"6' in a booth across the lot. He zoomed in on the Asian woman and got a good look at her face.

"Good luck my friend, Aqualad out."

Roy opened his suitcase and pulled out a collapsible red compound bow. He loaded an arrow in and ducked behind the bushes as a white limo surrounded by motorcycles rolled to a stop in front of the building.

That's when he saw her. A tall, skinny woman in green wearing a grinning cat mask jumped onto one of the booths and aimed a rocket launcher at the limo. Roy was about to shot an arrow when a knife hit the launcher just as she pulled the trigger, pushing the rocket off course.

The crowd of people instantly dispersed as guards surrounded the North and South Rhelasia leaders. Cheshire dropped the launcher and jumped across the crowd and began taking out the guards.

Roy jumped out from his hiding spot and fired an arrow at Cheshire, which opened up into a net. Cheshire easily slashed the net with her sai but Roy managed to tackle her to the ground. She was ready to make another attack when guards suddenly surrounded them and pointed guns at her. She held up her arms in surrender. The guards handcuffed Cheshire and put her into a squad car while Roy himself was detained and handcuffed. The crowd relaxed as the mystery arbitrator stepped out of the limo.

Roy immediately recognized the tall, bald man. _'Lex Luthor?'_

Lex Luthor turned from his female assistant to Roy and the guards that held him. "We have confirmation that this one is Green Arrow's pal, Speedy."

"Its Red Arrow now," he said with emphasis.

"But we must question him!" cried the officer.

"Lex Luthor vouches for him. Release the sidekick."

"Ex-sidekick," Roy added with resentment. "And I don't need any favors from you," he said, as the guard removed his handcuffs.

"Apologies, I didn't realize you wanted to join the young lady behind bars."

"You may have everyone here fooled, Luthor, but I know what you are…what you really are," said Roy.

"Oh, I don't pretend to be an angel, but this time, I'm on the side of the angels," said Luthor. He walked into the building, followed by his assistant and Roy. People were taking pictures as the leaders of North and South Rhelasia yelled back and forth at each other, believing the other to be behind the attempted assassination.

"Why should either side trust you?" asked Roy.

"Because LexCorp is a company founded on peaceful enterprise for all humanity."

"Cut the act Luthor! I've got Intel linking LexCorp to the sale of weapons in both North and South Rhelasia. You're profiting off this war," he said, pointing his finger at Luthor. "So what's your angle?"

"War income is pocket change compared to the billions to be made in investing in a peaceful united Rhelasia. And isn't it better to have peace then to have that scoundrel Lex Luthor profit from it?" he asked.

"That scoundrel may not survive to profit. Cheshire failed, but the League of Shadows won't stop until the contract is fulfilled," threatened Roy

"Which begs the question: who hired the League?" Luthor asked.

"And were you really the target?" he asked, looking at the two leaders. "Or was your death just a convenient way to sabotage the summit?"

"Allow me to hire you to find out."

"Your money has blood on it and I'm not here to make a buck," Roy remarked.

Luthor smirked, "In any case I've already hired some help."

"I noticed." Roy said, thinking about the knife that saved the limo from destruction.

A familiar hooded assassin walked out of the shadows and up to the two of them. "Hey Red."

"Creed! What are you doing here working for _Luthor_!" Roy asked venom in his voice.

"He hired the Brotherhood. We don't usually accept jobs from him, but these were unusual circumstances, and I was the only one that would be able to make it in time."

"He will be interrogating Cheshire." Luthor interrupted the comment Roy was about to make.

"What? I helped catch her!" Roy protested.

"Do you have any experience in interrogating an assassin?" Creed asked calmly.

"….No." Roy replied reluctantly.

Creed smirked, "Then I'll be the interrogator, and you can stand guard outside."

Roy, now in uniform, stood guard outside the police building that was holding Cheshire while Creed walked in to interrogate the cat themed assassin. He stood outside her tiny cell while she simply motioned her arms and body in slow, methodical movements. Her mask had been confiscated when she was detained so he had a very good look at her face. Her eyes were narrow and dark, almost as dark as her long thick hair.

"Hey cutie, aren't you going to ask me some questions?"

"Who hired the Shadows?" Creed asked.

"How do you know the Shadows hired me?" Cheshire asked a bit quickly.

Creed smirked, "You just told me." Creed almost laughed at the look on Cheshire's face when she realized her slip up. But to Creed's surprise her shock became a seductive smile.

"Your good, but to answer your question: I don't ask, I just do my job," she said with a wink.

"What's the endgame? The peace summit or Luthor himself?"

"Two birds, one stone," she said seductively. "Hey, where are your little sidekick friends? They're always fun to play with, especially Art-chery girl. I like her."

"What's the matter, getting bored with me?"

"What would make you think that?" she whispered. She walked up to the cell and grabbed his uniform and pulled him closer to her. Creed held up his hand and put it on the cell to stop her. He tried hard not to show it, but he instantly felt intrigued by another strange feeling between him and Cheshire. Yes, she was beautiful, but she was also a bad guy. Despite that, he couldn't help but feel something that he had never felt with a girl before. She moved her hand behind his neck and pulled his face closer to hers. After a moment and almost touching noses, with the exchange of personal water vapor, she suddenly ducked down and grabbed a hold of the bars. Creed realized he had a second to move.

The assassin was half a second too slow.

The wall to the holding cell blew open, propelling him across the room. The alarm blared as a thick dust covered the room. Cheshire coughed and as it cleared, saw Sportsmaster in the hole holding a rope.

"Oh, it had to be you!" she spat.

"Beggars can't be choosers little girl, coming?" Sportsmaster disappeared down the rope as Cheshire quickly jumped out and grabbed hold.

Roy burst into the room having heard the explosion. Seeing Creed supporting himself with the desk he began to walk over only for Creed to wave him off.

"Go *_cough* _I'll be fine *_cough*_.

Roy raced after the helicopter trying to catch the two assassins as Creed caught his breath and cleared his lungs of the dust. After having regained control of his hacking fit Creed realized what had happened.

She had played him! She had prevented him from getting the answers he wanted while waiting for her escape. Vald, who knew all his buttons, couldn't have done a better job. What made Cheshire so special that she could do that to him? Shaking his head clear of those thoughts Creed focused on the task at hand. Cheshire had escaped and would no doubt be returning to finish the job. He doubted- no knew RA wouldn't be able to catch her and Sportsmaster, so he waited for the archer to return.

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After Red had come back he and Creed met up with Luthor to inform him of the situation.

"The League of Shadows wants you dead," said Roy.

"Doesn't every League?" he asked.

"It's not just Cheshire. It's Sportsmaster and Ra's al Ghul himself."

"I can't say I'm not surprised. Ra's is something of a competitor of mine."

"Then maybe I should stand aside and let you two take each other out. That would certainly benefit me," said Roy.

"Yeah but then I wouldn't get paid." Creed said.

"So this is just business, huh?" Roy asked in resentment.

"Business transaction, nothing more," he said.

"Your sarcasm doesn't go unappreciated, but remember, the summit and national peace are at stake. Increase security," he said to his assistant. "Though if the Shadows think you're dead, maybe we can surprise them."

"I've got a better surprise."

"What?" Creed asked curiously

"Aqualad is coming."

Creed nodded his head and a plan began to form in his head. "I have an idea, but we need to wait for Aqualad to get here for it to work.

"What's your plan?" Luthor asked.

"You'll see." Creed said with a predatory grin.

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"Reunification is unthinkable!" shouted General Singh Manh Li, leader of North Rhelasia.

"Our people no longer have anything in common!" responded Prime Minister Tseng, leader of South Rhelasia.

"Gentlemen, this is mere rhetoric. Despite your great differences, you still share appreciation for many things, such as the traditional and exquisite art of the Rhelasian Tea Ceremony," said Lex Luthor, trying to bring some sort of peace to the quarreling leaders.

Roy stood behind the table where the leaders and Luthor sat while Creed stood nearby watching for anything suspicious. Luthor waved his hand and a tall Asian woman in a red and purple dress with white face paint came strolling towards the table with a teacart, while a waiter behind her carried a plate of biscuits.

"Heads up, Red. Tea girl at six o'clock," said Creed over the radio from his position.

The tea girl smiled _very _slightly as the hooded teen stood in front of her and the cart. But her smile turned to shock when the assassin pulled down his hood revealing Aqualad. Aqualad pulled out his water bearers, ready to defend the leaders."That is far enough…Cheshire," he said, causing all the paparazzi to gasp and turn around.

Cheshire narrowed her eyes as Roy readied an arrow for fire. She pressed a button on her cart and lunged it forward with all her might. As the cart raced towards them, Aqualad raised his arms, summoning all the water from the glasses on the table and formed a protective water dome just as Roy fired an arrow at the cart, but to his and everyone else's surprise, nothing happened. The cart just continued to roll harmlessly until it was stopped by the water shield.

"I'm sorry." Cheshire turned around to face the waiter who pulled his hat up to reveal Creed's face. He held up a few wires that looked like they had come from a bomb in his hand. "Did you need these?"

Roy aimed his arrow right at Cheshire. "It's over Cheshire," he said with a glare, determined not to let her escape again.

"You would think so," she said with a smirk. As she stood up, a helicopter rose up as several henchmen and Sportsmaster invaded the floor. Cheshire drew her Sai and jumped back into a pose, ready to fight.

"I got Cheshire!" Creed shouted as he charged Cheshire with his hidden blades.

"So territorial and only our third date. And you know what they say about the third date," she teased. Roy began to take out the agents as Aqualad leapt over Cheshire to take on Sportsmaster.

"So tell me," Cheshire asked as she exchanged blows with Creed, "How did you know." Creed smirked as he remembered.

**Flashback**

Creed stood next to the door of the kitchen in his waiter outfit as he looked for Cheshire. Red and Aqualad, who was dressed up as him, were on the floor guarding the summit leaders. Creed's attention was diverted to new tea girl who walked up and pulled a new cart up. Creed quickly counted the amount of tea girls on the floor and looked back to the new tea girl.

As she walked away to get a tea pot Creed inconspicuously walked over to the cart and looked underneath it, revealing a bomb. Carefully, but quickly he pinched several wires and tore them out, diffusing the bomb. Creed the stood up, stuffed the wires into his pocket and picked up a plate of biscuits and the tea girl came back with a pot of tea and rolled it out to the floor. Creed smirked as he too walked out to the floor.

**End Flashback**

"Sorry, trade secret." He quipped.

"Aww." Cheshire faked pouted as the next blow brought their faces close together. "Not even for me?"

"Nope." Creed replied, "Not even for you."

Luthor and the two Rhelasian leaders stood behind the table while their loyal soldiers and Roy held off several of the League of Shadow's goons. Their bodyguards tried to clear a path for them to escape, but there were far too many henchmen to give them room. Luthor, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed by the combat before him.

With great ease and strength, Sportsmaster fought off waves of bodyguards before finally succumbing to a hit from Aqualad's water bearers, in the form of flail-whips. He swung them again at Sportsmaster, who dodged back and blocked with his guard. Sportsmaster jumped forward to attack Aqualad, who dodged to the side. However, Aqualad's luck ran out as he was distracted by Creed and Cheshire's fight, taking Sportsmaster's arm right in the face as he pulled out a meteor hammer.

Sportsmaster, now armed with a rapier, lunged at Aqualad who dodged back and formed two identical blades with his water bearers. "Not bad, lad. Better than your team did in Santa Prisca or Bialya," taunted Sportsmaster.

"How did you-?"

"Let's just say I have an inside source, very inside," he added with narrow eyes.

"Aqualad, Creed, let's end this now!" Roy yelled, firing an arrow at the sprinkler, setting the system off. Aqualad raised his arms, the water taking the form of a long serpentine dragon tackling leftover henchmen before turning its attention to Sportsmaster. Cheshire suddenly jumped down in front of him and donned her mask before throwing an explosive into the water dragon's mouth, dispelling the serpent and covering the room in a cloud of smoke. The teens held up their arms and coughed as the smoke penetrated their respiratory system. All of a sudden, a henchmen who somehow managed to escape Aqualad's water dragon, leapt towards the two leaders with blades ready to kill. Before any of the teens could react…

"Mercy," spoke Luthor.

His assistant raised her arm, her palm suddenly shifting as parts of her arm moved to reveal a concealed laser blaster and fired at the final soldier. The teens turned back to the battered room in case there had been any more henchmen up and about. Mercy's arm returned to normal as Prime Minister Tseng and General Li stared at her in awe.

"Gives new meaning to the arms race, doesn't she?" Luthor said with pride.

"That technology is most impressive!" cried Li.

"We owe you our lives," cried Tseng as he and Li shook Luthor's hands.

"They owe _him_ they're lives?" Roy remarked in resent.

"_She_ takes out one henchman and _he_ gets all the glory?" added Creed.

"The summit leaders…and Luthor are safe," Aqualad added with uncertainty, "that is what's most important."

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The press gathered in the lobby of the summit building where its conclusion was being met. Luthor sat between Li and Tseng as they both signed papers detailing the eventual reunification of their two countries. Once the meeting was concluded, Luthor, joined by Mercy, got up from the table and walked over to Creed.

"Your pay, it's all here," Luthor added. "But I can understand if you choose to count it yourself."

Creed opened the suitcase and scanned the piles of bills before flipping through one pile. "You're still on our list of people we don't accept jobs from. The circumstances were just different this time. The Brotherhood will be watching you," he said.

"That's nothing compared to the Justice League's eyes on me," he added with a smirk.

"Don't call us again," he added, taking the suitcase and joining up with Aqualad and Roy. "We done here?"

Roy narrowed his eyes at Creed and his briefcase of money before speaking. "I can't believe we just did a solid for Lex Luthor," he said as the three of them walked towards the building entrance.

"I didn't, I was paid," added Creed.

"It was not for Luthor, but for peace. Beyond that, Ra's and the League of Shadows wanted to sabotage the summit," Aqualad said as they reached the courtyard.

"Well, I've got to get this back to the Brotherhood, I'll see you back at the cave, Aqualad. Nice working with you, Red," said Creed walking away from the two teens.

"The signing of the treaty renders their contract moot. It is over," said Aqualad.

Roy waited for Creed to disappear out of sight before speaking. "Is it?" Aqualad looked at Roy in confusion. "I heard what Sportsmaster said to you. Do you really think there's a mole on your team feeding him intel?"

"I cannot rule out the possibility."

"Well what about him? You heard what he said; he gets hired for this sort of work. Someone could very well have hired him to join the team as a double agent."

"You suspect Creed? It is possible, but he has proven himself to the team several times already and he's never given me a reason to doubt his abilities and intentions. I will investigate, quietly."

"You're not going to tell them?" he asked, confused.

"I do not want the unit unraveling over baseless suspicions, especially without any cold, hard evidence to back up any accusations. And if there is a mole, I have no wish to tip him or her off."

"Good luck with that," Roy said with a friendly salute before walking away.

"One moment my friend," said Aqualad. Roy stopped. "Tonight, you could have called Green Arrow for help or the Justice League, but instead, your first instinct was to call the cave."

"You're right," Roy said, facing Aqualad. "The team deserves, and has my respect. I'm still getting used to this solo act stuff. But if you need me, I'll be there." The two boys shook hands and exchanged looks before departing.

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**I hoped you enjoyed. And to those of you who couldn't figure it out its OC/Cheshire.**

**Review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**So I finally found enough time to write this chapter. Sorry I took so long, but schools been kind of demanding lately. Not to mention this was so far the hardest chapter to write. I'm going to stop talking about so I don't reveal anything, but I do have questions to answer.**

**The Dude Strikes Back: To answer to your confusion, and I probably should have made this clear in the first place so I apologize for that, but when I just say he uses his hidden blades what I mean is that he uses the blade part of the hook blade. I call it a hook blade when he is using the hook part, I just find it easier than saying hidden and hook blade all the time.**

**I guess that's all the questions so here's the chapter.**

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Derek was sharpening his hidden blade when he was told to suit up and go to the mission room. When Creed got there he was surprised to find only Robin and Batman waiting for him. Creed asked Robin, "Where is everyone?"

Robin replied, "School, speaking of which shouldn't you be in school too?"

"No, the Brotherhood makes sure everyone has at least a high school level education. So what's the mission," Creed asked, "You?"

"Hacked the system to let me out early," Robin said smiling slyly.

"Ahem." Batman grunted to get their attention."Intelligence has indicated that an unknown group has made a base in an ancient fortress in western Syria called Masyaf, your mission is to discover who and why they have taken up residence there." Batman told them.

"Wait, did you say Masyaf?" Creed asked.

Batman looked at him, "You know of it?"

"Yeah, it used to be an old assassin base during the crusades, but it was abandoned after Altiar freed the assassins of Abbas' twisted rule." Creed told them.

"Then you know the layout?" Batman asked.

Creed thought for a moment, though not required by the Brotherhood, his father had him memorize assassin bases, even if they weren't in use. It had been a while since he had reviewed the plans to Masyaf, but he still remembered them.

"Yes, I do." Batman nodded in acknowledgment.

"Manhunter has already reconfigured the bioship for manual control. You leave immediately."

After getting into the bioship and taking off Robin asked Creed, "So what should we expect?"

"Masyaf is strongly fortified. If some group has taken the fortress and is manning the walls getting in could be difficult." Creed replied.

"So what do you suggest?" Robin asked.

"I'm not sure, the walls may be too unstable for people to be using them; they haven't been maintained since Altiar had the Brotherhood abandon the city."

"You mentioned that Altiar guy earlier, who was he?" Robin asked.

"He was an Assassin that lived during the 11th and 12th century, he reformed and strengthen the Brotherhood, saving it from decline." Creed told him.

"So why did he abandon Masyaf?" Robin asked. He had heard Creed say that Altair was the one who had the assassins abandon the fortress; he was curious as to why.

"Altiar saw that possessing such a fortress was a sign of arrogance, as it separated us from the people we are supposed to protect."

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By the time the duo reached the surrounding mountains of Masyaf it was mid afternoon. Robin found a flat pack of ground and landed the bioship. Creed took a pair of binoculars and looked at the fortress. He about two dozen men in black amour, on the walls and in front of the gate, but he couldn't make out the insignia on their uniform.

"Well?" Robin asked.

"They're guards on the walls and in front of the gate." Creed told him

"Can we scale the walls?"

"No," Creed replied, "We would get spotted by the guards before we made it halfway up."

"So how are we getting in?" Creed's binoculars turned towards the road from the town to see a truck slowly making its way to the fortress.

"We're going through the front door." He said smiling.

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Ten minutes later both Creed and Robin where hiding on the underside of the truck trying to stay as quiet as possible. The guards at the gate stopped the truck and began to search it. _"Don't look under, don't look under."_ Creed thought, repeating the mantra in his head. Creed's prayers were answered as the guards only checked the back of the truck.

"Clear." One of them said. The truck began moving again and passed through the gate. Creed and Robin then got off the bottom of the truck and hid behind a stack of containers.

"So who are these guys?" Robin asked.

"Their Templar," Creed told him, now being able to see the insignia on their shoulder clearly.

"So what are they doing here?"

"Don't know, let's find out." Slipping back into the shadows Creed and Robin made their way towards the inner part of the fortress, finding what appeared to be a large factory.

"Weapons, their making weapons," Robin said, pointing to the racks of strange looking guns that were being put into crates.

"_This isn't normal Templar behavior," _Creed thought to his self, _"Nowadays Templar usually just try to use business and politics to take control, not make enough weapons for an army."_

"We need to find out who's is in charged." Creed said to Robin.

"How we going to do that?" Robin asked.

Creed gave him a sly smile, "We're going to get captured."

"So that they take us to the highest authority, clever," Robin admitted.

"Just don't do anything to startle them, Templar are known to do stupid things."

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Turns out it wasn't that hard to be captured. All they did was walk down a hall way that a small group was patrolling. The leader immediately seized the opportunity to get a promotion for catching two intruders, to intoxicated with visions of awards to realize how little of a fight they were putting up. They two of them were placed in an old cell as the leader told the other two guards, "Stay here while I report to the Grandmaster."

Creed's pupils shrunk to pinpricks and his muscles tensed at the mention of the Grandmaster.

"We need to get out of here _now."_ Creed whispered urgently to Robin.

"But we just got here, and we need to figure out who this Grandmaster is." Robin asked, confused to why Creed was acting like this.

"I know who he is and trust me we need to get out of here _now!_" Robin looked at Creed and saw the fear in his eyes. Robin had known Creed long enough to know that there was very little that would make the assassin act like this, so who ever this Grandmaster was someone not to be messed with.

Though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, Creed was scared. His last (secret) encounter with is uncle had reminded him that he could pound him into the ground easily, and that the only reason that he ever survives a fight with him is because he likes to toy with him.

"Ok." Robin replied.

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The leader of the group of guards that had captured Creed and Robin walking into a room with a man sitting on a throne hidden in the shadows with another whispering to him.

"Sir," the guard said, catching the attention of the two men.

"My team and I captured two intruders, one was an assassin."

The man on the throne was silent for a moment before asking in a cold monotone voice, "And I'm assuming that the only reason you're here is to tell me that you've placed both of them in the highest security cell with a dozen guards watching them."

"Y-yes sir." The guard replied nervously.

"Then why has the chief of security just informed me that two guards were found knocked out in a cell?"

"W-well…" The guard tried to explain.

"Silence!" The man boomed, "You have failed, and I don't tolerate failure."

Before the guard could even think of running away the man pulled out a spear and threw it at the guard, stabbing him in the heart killing him instantly. Turning back to the chief of security he said, "Have someone clean up this mess, as for me," the man walked out of the shadows revealing Vald, "I think it's time for a family reunion."

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After knocking out the guards Creed and Robin sneaked out of the fortress an were running towards the bioship.

"Going somewhere?" Both Creed and Robin stopped and turned around, coming face to face to Vald.

"Robin, go."

"What?" Robin asked incredulously.

"I said go! Get the bioship." Creed responded in a tone Robin had never heard him use before.

"But we can just-"

Creed interrupted him, "We get cut down before we made five feet."

"But-"

"Trust me."

After a moment of contemplation Robin nodded and ran towards where the bioship was parked. Taking a deep breath Creed cleared his head and got into a fighting stance as he prepared to face Vald. "Hmmn. Never seen that stance before, can't wait to pick it apart." Vald said mockingly. Like a jungle cat Creed sprang up and tried to deliver a face kick. Vald easily dodged the blow, but was unable to avoid the high and low kicks that followed the initial feint. After regaining his stance Vald grabbed one of Creed's legs mid kick and threw him against the wall. Realizing that this fighting style relied more on strength and speed than precision, Vald adjusted his own style accordingly.

Grabbing his extendable spear from his belt Vald charged the disoriented assassin. Creed's eyes widened at the sight of Vald's spear bearing down on him. Rolling to his side Creed avoided the worst of the blow, but the edge of the spear slipped through this armor and left a gash in his side. Holding his side in pain Creed was asked by Vald, "Is the mighty assassin felled by one blow?"

"Hardly," Creed returned. Unknown to Vald Creed was using this position to discreetly reach his throwing knives. Throwing a handful of knives, Creed was less than surprised when Vald used his spear to deflect both of them, but he _was_ surprised when Vald actually caught one with his hand. Vald took the offending knife and threw it back at its owner. Creed leaned to the side to avoid his own knife.

Vald charged Creed again intending on running him through with his spear. Creed leaned back like a gymnast, using all four limbs to hold his position as the spear passed above him. Then using his body like a spring Creed shot his legs upward. Vald knew when to let go of a weapon as it sailed dozens of feet into the air. Even as his weapon fell off the edge of the cliff Vald shifted his fighting style to hand-to-hand and lunged at Creed while he was still mid-flip. Creed grunted in pain as Vald's rock like fists hit him in the back. Creed tried to reorient himself only for Vald to strike him in the gut. Vald then lashed out a Creed with a storm of hits the assassin was unable to block or avoid.

As Creed fell to the ground in pain with some blood dripping on to his chin from a busted lip, Vald hoisted him up by the neck and started to choke Creed. Unable to break the man's stronger grip Creed resorted to the next best thing. Taking his hidden blade Creed tried to stab the man in the abdomen, only to find that the armor was too thick to penetrate. "End of the line assassin," Vald taunted as he was crushing the life out of his own nephew. As darkness began to edge in on his vision, Creed's oxygen deprived brain came up with one last idea to try and escape the death grip. Vald saw Creed open his mouth slightly and noticed a glint of red, not realizing what it was until it was too late. The coppery liquid was sprayed unto his exposed eyes, breaking his concentration for a second.

A second was all Creed needed.

Swiftly bringing his arms up Creed slammed down on Vald's arms, breaking the man's grip. As Vald wiped off the blood his eyes widened as Creed tried to return the beating that he was given earlier. Unfortunately for Creed Vald's armor absorbed most of the damage he was dishing out. As Creed went in for another attack Vald stopped him by grabbing his fist in his bare hand. Wald bent Creed's wrist into a very painful position, causing Creed to fall to one knee. Not content with that Vald kneed Creed in the gut, making him cough up some blood an fall to the ground. Looking down at his nephew he asked, "Is that it? You're a disgrace to the Brotherhood and your father." Creed looked up at Vald in anger, attempting to stand to continue fighting, only to fall back to the ground. "What makes you think you have _any_ chance of beating me?"

Creed looked up at Vald, this time with a smirk on his face, "Who said I had to beat you?"

Vald had a look of confusion in his eyes until he heard the sound of an energy weapon powering up. Quickly looking behind him he saw the bioship de-cloak and fire its cannon at him. Vald dodged the blast, but he was blow backwards by its force and flew off to the side. The bioship landed in front of Creed and the ramp opened. Creed got up and limped up the ramp into the ship. It then closed the ramp, cloaked and began flying back to Mt. Justice. Vald got up and glared at where the bioship had last been. Though his body didn't show it, his eyes held an unmistakable furry.

"So," he said to his self, "The game has begun."

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The rest of the team had gathered in the cave after school, waiting for Robin and Creed to return.

"I still can't believe they went on a mission without us!" Wally said for the hundredth time.

"Would you give it a rest Baywatch? So what if we didn't go with them?" Artemis asked, annoyed about Wally's constant complaining.

"But-" Wally's next complaint was interrupted by the bay doors opening and the bioship landing. "Finally!" Wally exclaimed. As the team gathered at the landing platform Wall zoomed up the opening ramp and asked, "Hey, you guys get me any-" Wally trailed off as he saw the two come down the ramp. Robin looked no worse for wear, but Creed was a different story. His form was battered and bruised and was half-unconscious as the limped down with Robin supporting him.

Robin broke the others out of their stupor by saying, "We need to get him to the med bay now!" Robin had been able to treat most of the superficial wounds with the med kit in the ship, but the internal injuries would have to be dealt with in an actual infirmary. In hindsight he should have called for them to be ready for Creed, but he barley had enough time to put the ship on autopilot before Creed fell unconscious.

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Several minutes later Black Canary and Martian Manhunter were in the infirmary treating Derek while Robin was debriefing Batman and the team what had happened. Robin told them about how they infiltrated Masyaf, the discover of the Templar, their capture, Creed's fear of the Grandmaster and how he held him off while Robin got the bioship, and ending about how he found Creed.

"So who was this Grandmaster guy?" Artemis asked.

"I don't know, but Creed obviously knows him." Robin replied

"So let's ask him when he gets up!" Wally exclaimed.

"I'm afraid that may be a while." Canary said as she and Manhunter came out of the infirmary.

"What's his condition?" Batman asked.

Canary sighed, "He's stable, and the damage actually looks worse than it is, but he still has two cracked rib and a twisted wrist, plus all the bruising he'll get later. He won't be able to go on missions for at least two weeks, and he's probably not going to wake up for a few hours." Looking back towards the unconscious teen she said, "He' going to need the rest."

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_The sky was on fire._

_That was what Derek saw when he burst out of the camouflaged building. The thick smoke covered the sky, blocking the stars one would usually be able to see. Crimson flames licked at buildings that were built similar to the one he had just come out of. The ground was covered in ash and dead bodies were scattered about, some lying on the ground while others were pinned to walls with various weapons._

_Amidst all this chaos a figure could be made out walking out of the smoke and towards Derek. Derek squinted his eyes trying to see who it was in the smoke. As some of the smoke cleared Derek was relieved when he saw his father. His hood was down revealing his bearded face and green eyes, the same eyes Derek had. _ _Derek smiled as his father walked closer, only for him to slump and fall to the ground, revealing a spear in his father's back, being held then by none other than his father's older brother, Vald. Vald sneered at his nephew and yelled, "You're a failure, you couldn't save the assassins, you couldn't save your friends and you couldn't save your father!"_ _Wrenching the spear from the back of his deceased brother Vald charged at Derek, as Derek stood still, ready to join his family as the spear grew closer._

Derek shot up screaming before he realized it had been a nightmare. As he lay back down on the infirmary bed he took several deep breaths to calm himself down. Black Canary burst into the room with a worried expression on her face.

"Are you ok?" She asked with concern. Derek nodded weakly.

"Yeah, it was just a nightmare." To himself the thought,_ "Just a nightmare."_ A little bit later Derek had recovered enough to talk to Batman about Vald.

"Who is the Grandmaster?" Batman asked Derek.

"His name is Vald; he's the current leader of the Templar." Derek responded.

"You know him personally." Batman told rather than asked.

Derek wondered how he knew that but then again he was Batman. Seeing no point in hiding it any longer he replied, "Yes. He's the man who killed my father." Behind him Black Canary's expression softened in concern while Batman, as usual remained unchanging. Batman could tell there was more to it than just that, but he could also see that it was a touchy subject for the assassin.

"I want a full report once you well enough." He said before walking out of the infirmary.

"Get some rest." Black Canary told him kindly, "You're going to need it to recover." Too tired to respond with words Derek laid back down as Canary walked out and turned the lights out. As he fell back asleep his mind returned to nightmares.

He woke up screaming again a few hours later.

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Inside a circular room with eight separate screens, hiding their faces the Light was having a meeting.

"A pity the operation did not reach full capacity."

"Disappointing but not unexpected" one of the figures replied.

"We managed to make the most of our time there, now that we must relocate it."

"And what of the children? They have interfered once too many times."

"I already have a plan in motion to eliminate all of them."

"No!" The eighth screen unexpectedly spoke up, "Do what you want to the others, but the assassin is _mine!"_

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**Can you guess who the eighth member is?**

** I hoped you enjoyed this chapter I had fun writing the fight scene between Creed and Vald. I wanted to show that Creed can be beaten, that he's not some fighting machine; it makes him seem more realistic as a character. **

**Anyway so what did you guys think about my first original chapter? Like it? Hate it? Let me know so that I can make changes for future chapters.**


	11. Chapter 11

**So I got this from one of the Young Justice comics and thought it would be a good way for Derek to tell the others a bit about his past. In the comic Artemis wasn't part of the team yet, but I couldn't figure out how to get her to really contribute anything, so she's not in this chapter.**

**Derek will be getting a new weapon next chapter.**

**I want to know if you guys/gals want to see more Derek/Cheshire interactions, so review if you want them or not.  
**

**And that's all I have to , so enjoy!  
**

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"In other news-back to Space Adventures 8-and so the penguins march on-" Wally sat on the couch in a slouch position, lazily holding the remote up as he quickly flipped through the channels. He had an empty pizza box on the coffee table along with several bottles of soda pop and crumpled up bags of chips on the couch. Food specs were scattered everywhere around him, a clear sign of Wally's quiet and sloppy eating habits and it was very likely that he wouldn't be cleaning it up.

"Seen it. Seen it. Seen it. Rerun. Don't want to see it. Too old. Too childish. Too stupid. Too boring. Man, you'd think that with over six hundred high definition channels, there'd be something on TV. But, no! I've been cursed with an endless stream of boring TV programs!" groaned Wally. He sighed and lazily sank into the couch as he dropped the remote on the coffee table in defeat.

"Why don't you do something productive instead of complaining?" Derek asked. He was sitting on the couch next to Wally trying to stay out of his trash radius. It had been a week and a half since his fight with Vald, and while he had almost completely recovered he still had to take it easy to avoid injuring himself even more.

"Nah." Wally ignored hir suggestion and noticed Megan enter the room. She was reading a book as she came in and was clearly engrossed in it, as she had not greeted Skye or Wally. Wally zoomed out of his seat to greet her. "Hey there!" he beamed.

Megan looked up from her book, slightly startled by his sudden appearance. "Oh. Hello, Wally!" she smiled.

"Are you busy? Uh…I mean…what's going on?" he asked, leaning against the kitchen counter in another attempt to look cool in front of Megan.

"Oh, not much. I was just about to make a sandwich. Would you like me to make one for you?" she asked.

"Oh, no thanks," he answered, nervously rubbing the back of his head. "Besides, I might have cleaned out your entire fridge just now."

"Yah think?" Derek asked, pointing to all the food waste around where Wally was sitting.

"Well, I could go shopping for some more food. I didn't have anything planned tonight anyway."

Wally's face suddenly lit up. "Oh really? That's cool! Hey, I've got an idea! Would you like to go the movies? There's a lot of great movies playing right now."

"Sure, I would love to! But…I don't have any money…" Megan replied, sadly.

"Oh. Me neither. Wait, didn't Batman give you a credit card or something?" he asked.

"Yes, but that was for Cave expenses: food, school supplies, new clothes. It wouldn't feel right spending Batman's money on the movies."

"Well, how about surfing? You and I could hit the beach to make up for last time and I could teach you how to surf Kid Flash style!" Wally said, making a surfing pose.

"That sounds nice, but wouldn't it be better in the daytime?" she asked with a smile.

"Oh, right. I guess time really flies when you're flipping through six hundred channels." An awkward silence soon followed until Wally came up with another suggestion. "There's a full moon out tonight. How about we sit outside and look at the stars?"

"Oh, that sounds nice!"

"Great! We could build a fire and everything…"

"A fire?" Megan cried in worry.

"Yeah, you know a nice roaring, toasty campfire…" Wally slapped his hand over his mouth. "Oh, sorry, I forgot."

Megan held up her hands to quell Wally's concern. "No, it's okay. I should be fine as long as I don't sit too close."

"Great! Tonight would be perfect! We can roast marshmallows and everything!"

"Marshmallows? What are those?" she asked.

"We use them to make s'mores…with graham crackers and chocolate?" Wally explained.

"Oh yes, I've heard of them, but I've never had one before. Can we make those?"

"What do you think?" he asked with a cheeky smile.

"Yes!" Megan beamed.

"Great!" cried Wally.

"This is going to be very exciting! My first s'more!"

"Give me a few minutes and I'll grab something and then we can go!" Wally said, zooming out of sight.

"Oh, this sounds like fun. Derek, are you coming?" asked Megan.

"Huh?" Derek asked.

"To the campfire. You're coming right?"

Derek suppressed a smirk as he realized that Megan didn't know Wally had just asked her on a date. "Sure! Here's an idea, why don't you invite the rest of the guys too?" he asked, trying to hide his grin."

"That's a great idea! This'll be so much fun!" Megan turned to Artemis, who just entered the room. "Artemis, would you like to come camping with us tonight?"

"Sorry, can't. I have to get home and make dinner for my mom. Maybe some other time," said Artemis, leaving.

"Ok!" Megan squealed as she flew off to tell the rest of the team. A couple minutes later, Kaldur, Conner and Robin came into the living room with Megan.

"Ok Megan, I've got a couple of chairs, some firewood, it took me a while since I raided the kitchen but I found graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows and now we'll just cozy up together outside!" Wally grinned in excitement. He suddenly stopped when he saw the rest of the team with Megan. "Just the two of us?" he asked in confusion.

"We're going to need a lot more stuff than that if we're gonna go camping," remarked Robin.

"I hope you don't mind but I invited all the others to join in with the s'mores!" Megan smiled.

Wally didn't have much of a choice after that. It wasn't like he could tell the others that they weren't invited. It would have been rude and wouldn't have given Megan a very good impression of him. They all gathered more equipment and made their way outside through the Cave's front door by the forest. They set up some tents and chairs before starting their campfire and roasting marshmallows. Kaldur and Megan sat in a couple of chairs a few feet away from the fire; Wally sat on a log in front of them while Robin was sitting on the grass leaning on the same log. Derek sat by a log to their right while Conner sat on a log across from Wally and Robin.

"This was a great idea, don't you think Wally? Camping in the great outdoors!" said Robin, roasting a marshmallow over the fire. Despite the fact it was nighttime, he was still wearing his sunglasses, as per Batman's orders to keep his identity secret.

"I don't remember inviting you. Besides, I didn't say anything about camping. I said a **campfire**. Big difference between just a campfire and the whole camping thing. I don't like camping outside, unless of course I'm with that special someone," Wally said, eyeing Megan behind him.

"Dude kinda bordering on creepy," said Robin.

"Well I think all of us camping is a wonderful idea!" grinned Megan, holding a s'more on a stick.

"She doesn't seem to think so," said Wally.

"She's probably on a sugar overload," argued Robin.

"Thanks to Wally, I get to try s'mores for the first time!" Megan cried, taking a bite of the s'more.

"What can I say? I'm a sweetie! Ha! Get it? Cause s'mores are sweet?" laughed Wally.

Derek groaned. "That was worse than your rock joke at the Mister Twister fight."

"Haha, try hanging out with him more, you'll hear his endless library of pickup lines," said Robin.

"So, this is what you do when you go camping? Sleep in these flimsy things called 'tents,' and sit around the fire?" asked Conner.

"Yeah, that's pretty much about it so if you feel like heading home, I can sit out here with Megan…alone," said Wally.

"You're about as subtle as a train wreck, you know that?" smirked Robin.

"You're not going to catch any fish unless you go fishing, dude," said Wally. "Sorry, no offense," he added to Kaldur behind him.

"You know, usually you sit around the campfire and tell stories," started Robin.

"Oh! I would love to hear your story Kaldur! Could you tell us how you became Aqualad?" asked Megan.

"I was thinking more of a ghost story type of thing but I guess…whatever," said Robin.

"Oh, I suppose I could do that if you do not think it will be boring," said Kaldur.

"Not at all! I would love to hear it!"

"Well, I grew up in the city of Shayeris, which is a city in Atlantis. Surface dwellers think all Alanteans are the same, but our kingdom has many cities, many people and many different cultures. When I was twelve, I completed my education and began my mandatory service in the Atlantean military, which is standard for all at that age. After a while, I was transferred to the prestigious Conservatory of Sorcery in the Atlantean capital of Poseidonis.

"Queen Mera is the head mistress of the Conservatory and the wife of King Orin, Aquaman. It was difficult, as it would be for anyone at age fourteen I suppose, but also a time in my life where I met friends that I know will be with me for a lifetime.

"Then came a horrible day when Poseidonis was attacked by the Ocean Master. I can remember it vividly, as if it happened only yesterday. It was the day Aquaman nearly met his end. Normally an attack on Poseidonis would easily be stopped by the Leviathan," started Kaldur.

"What's the Leviathan?" asked Megan.

"It is a massive creature that used to live in Atlantis. It protected the city from harm, but it left on its own long ago. It was long before I was even born. I have never seen it, but I have heard stories. They say that the ocean bends to his will and he can spit lightning from his mouth. Anyway, as I was saying, Aquaman and Ocean Master fought for what seemed like hours. When Aquaman and Ocean Master clashed, it seemed to shake the very foundations of the city. Ocean Master had gained the upper hand and nearly defeated Aquaman. Correction, Aquaman _was_ defeated.

"Garth, a fellow student, and I intervened on the King's behalf. It was the only thing we could think of doing. The danger of our actions did not occur to us, the only thing that mattered to us at the time was that our King was in trouble and needed assistance. It may have been one of the most foolish things Garth and I had ever done, as we nearly met our own end. We had no hope of defeating Ocean Master whatsoever, but the time we spent engaged in battle against Ocean Master was enough time for our King to recover. That was all he needed as Aquaman finally triumphed over Ocean Master! He was able to drive him away from the city and save us all!

"Aquaman is a being of two worlds. On the surface, he fights for justice for all beings. Under the sea, he is a leader to many. Both carry the weight of responsibilities, overwhelming responsibilities only even the best of men can carry for so long. Even Aquaman cannot do both forever. Realizing that on the surface both Batman and Green Arrow had taken on apprentices that could one day take over their respective mantels, King Orin had been contemplating the same idea. With this in mind, he approached both Garth and myself with the offer of becoming his protégés. I must admit the possibility intrigued me immediately. I had never been to the surface world before. Many a day in class I would dream of visiting distant oceans and possibly one day even the surface world. We both seriously considered the offer. Garth ended up choosing to continue his studies under Queen Mera's tutelage at the Conservatory of Sorcery. For me, however, the chance to visit the surface was a dream come true. So, at the age of fourteen, I became Aqualad. I do miss my friends Garth and Tula, but the chance to work with my mentor and King was an opportunity I could not even think to pass up. I like to think the work I am doing makes a difference. The rest of the story you know: Aquaman brought Aqualad to the surface world…and now I am here with you."

"Wow! So you wanted to be Aqualad?" asked Megan.

"Yes, the opportunity arose. I could think of no other path."

"Yeah? If you think he wanted to be Aqualad so bad, let me tell you about how I got started," said Wally, casually pointing to himself with his thumb. "It literally goes back a couple of generation. Each generation of Flash started with a bang! Literally! Jay Garrick was in a freak lab accident. During the 40's and the 50's, he was everywhere, the fastest man alive! Jay Garrick was the world's first Flash!

"Then one day, this guy comes along, a huge fan of the Flash, wanting to know all about this Jay Garrick. Back in those days Jay didn't really hide his identity. He contacts Jay and the two spend hours and hours talking about his adventures and about the accident that turned Jay into the Flash. This guy even goes so far as to re-create the accident that created the original. But where Jay's was a total freak accident, this guy recreated the accident under laboratory conditions. He set the whole thing up in a lab and tried to make it happen. Result? Still a big explosion! But lo and behold, he becomes the speedy McSpeed-speed himself! Now he's the Flash, not the original, but the new Flash, the one we all know. I mean, there's the Jay Garrick Flash and now there's the new Flash. It just occurred to me that they could probably use different names…anyway…this time he's even faster than the Flash, or the old Flash, it gave him more speed!

"Okay, so check this! The second Flash is a fan of the first Flash, Jay Garrick. It turns out that great minds think alike, cause I was a fan of the Flash, the second, not the first. Well, I was a fan of Jay Garrick too after I got to know him. He was a little before my time. Long story short, one day, I was in my uncle's house and stumbled across his notebooks and got the shock of a life-time! That was the day I found out my uncle was the Flash! Once the shock passed a bit, I kept reading. He was keeping a journal of all his experiences and experiments, especially the one that made him the Flash, the second one, not the first-"

"We get it already!" cried Robin.

"When I found that out, I would kind of keep hinting to my uncle that the Flash could maybe use a partner. I tried to convince him that the Flash could use and probably needed a partner. I mean, come on, by this time Bat's had Robbie over here and Green Arrow had Speedy! This was a no-brainer. I've got to admit, Flash was a bit resistance at first."

"Does this sound confusing to anyone else?" asked Superboy.

"Just let me finish and you will be confused no more, Supey. So having seen his journal just like he saw the previous Flash's, I try to re-create the experiment with my own chemistry set. And what do you know? I was able to do it!"

"The experiment actually worked?" asked Kaldur in disbelief.

"Well...Not at first actually."

"You blew up your room?" asked Derek.

"Yeah, and a bit of the bathroom, nothing too big. I was in the hospital for a while. The super speed didn't happen at first, but a couple of weeks later, I was off and running! I couldn't wait to show Flash! When he saw that I had powers, how could he not want me as a partner? You guys should've seen his face when I showed him!" Wally beamed with pride. "This time he jumped at the chance to have a partner. Flash couldn't wait to show the world! The Flash was beyond ecstatic! He couldn't contain his excitement! It was the greatest day in the history of the world! Why, you ask?"

"Just for the record, we didn't," said Robin.

"That's the day the world got Kid Flash!" Wally crossed him arms as he finished the story and smirked. "You. Are. Welcome."

"Yeah, we're all thrilled that you're so speed-capable," remarked Robin.

"What the matter? Jealous?"

"Tch, yeah right! Jealous of you?"

"Can you tell us about how you got started, Robin?" asked Megan.

Robin furrowed his eyebrows and suddenly looked grim, not answering Megan's question. For the past few minutes he had been quite jovial and cracking jokes at Wally, but his demeanor suddenly shifted and he withdrew.

"Haha, are you kidding me? Bats won't even let him tell you his real name!" laughed Wally. "I mean, you'd probably get a better origin story out of Supey here," he said, pointing to Conner.

"But you already told me his story, didn't you? The four of you rescued him from Cadmus," said Megan.

"We sure did," said Wally.

"Chronologically, Superboy is only sixteen weeks old," said Kaldur.

"And you have no memory of things before being rescued?" asked Megan.

"Well, I have some memories…from the G-Gnomes. It would teach me about the world outside while I was in the containment pod," he explained.

"So you can remember things? When you were in the containment pod, they would feed you information and you could remember it, right?" asked Megan.

"I guess so…"

"Well if you can remember what they taught you, you must've been thinking about things as they fed you information. What did you think about?" she asked in curiosity.

"When I was in the containment pod, I was fed…information. I really didn't start thinking for myself until after I got out."

"Well, what kind of things do you think about now?" asked Megan.

Conner hesitated for a moment. "The one thing that's always on my mind is…destroying Superman."

The air in the atmosphere suddenly became tense and uneasy. Connor felt the awkwardness followed by his words and stood up, turning his back to everyone else. Nobody knew where to begin speaking and no one seemed to want to cut the silence.

Wally looked over to Robin who looked like he hadn't been paying attention. "Robin! Robin! Robin, did you hear what he said?"

"Huh? What?" he asked, snapping out of his daydream.

"Did you hear what Supey said? He just said he wants to take down Superman!" Wally cried.

"Are you serious? Conner?" asked Megan.

"It's how I feel…sometimes…" he answered awkwardly. "What if that's why I was crated? What if that was the only reason I was created?"

"That's not possible!" protested Megan.

"Yeah, look at all the good stuff you've done so far!" said Wally.

"What would be the possible reasoning behind this thinking?" asked Kaldur.

"I just feel…I don't know what I feel. Sometimes…thoughts happen," said Conner.

"He does have a valid point. We really don't know anything about what they did to him yet," said Robin.

"Well, don't you guys remember what he said after we got captured in Cadmus? 'Created to replace him should he perish…to destroy him should he turn from the light'," said Derek

Wally cried. "We know he's one of the good guys and we know he's part of this team!"

"I wasn't suggesting that he isn't, Wally. It's what he chooses to do after he's created that matters. But Cadmus did try and program you for a few weeks," Derek said looking a Connor, "It's probably just some residual effects of them force feeding you information." Connor didn't say anything, but he still had some doubt on his face.

"I agree with Derek. In my world, actions speak louder than words. He's proven his intentions with actions," said Robin.

Wally stepped up to Conner and held a s'more up to him. "Yeah! You put those thoughts outta your head, Supey! Here, have another s'more," he said, handing it to Conner.

Conner took the s'more and held it by his mouth. "Thanks…everyone."

Wally walked back to his spot. "Hey," he said to Robin. "What's with you? It's not like you to zone out like that."

"I guess Superboy isn't the only one lost in thought," answered Robin.

"Hey, you haven't told us about your story. What's the dealio with you, Megan?" asked Wally.

"Oh…okay. Since all of you told your stories. I guess I should too. Well, I'm from Mars," she smacked her forehead, "Ugh, hello Megan! You guys know that already! Well, all Martians live in underground tunnels because the surface is uninhabitable. Our family lives are very intertwined. As you already know, we mostly communicated telepathically. It helps us with maintaining large Martian families and creating a close community."

"Large? How many are in your family?" asked Kaldur.

"Martian families are usually quite large compared to human standards. I have twelve sisters, seventeen brothers and over three hundred cousins in my extended families."

"Three hundred?" asked Wally.

"Yes."

"Are they all hot girls like you?"

"Wow, you are a class act," said Robin.

"Dude! Three hundred girls that look like her? Now that is a planet I want to visit!"

"Well, half of my cousins are male, but yes, most Martians look very similar…mostly green like myself and uncle J'onn. But there are others with…differences. There are also Martians that are red and white. Some people on my planet do not see the White Martians as equals. My parents were both green and I was raised in what you would call a 'liberal' type of environment. My family…I had no issue with White Martians. Others were not as tolerant and the treatment of White Martians was especially horrible."

"How did you happen to come to Earth?" asked Kaldur.

"Of all the brothers, sisters, parents, aunts and uncles, the family member I was closest to was uncle J'onn. We have a great relationship. We would watch his exploits on Earth with the rest of the Justice League! He grew to be a true beacon of hope and stood for what our society could achieve. He became the most famous Martian in our history. Upon his return to Mars it was declared a day of planet wide celebration. When he came back, it was not just for adulation of our population. He also had a specific purpose in mind.

"Having learned about all of you – Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad and Speedy – J'onn decided now was the time to introduce a younger Martian hero to Earth. J'onn J'onzz came to Mars and declared he would hold a competition to find the next Martian champion that would be returning with him to fly among the heroes of Earth. I decided that I would enter the contest, as did what seemed like half the Martian population. I, however, was coming to Earth. That was a fact! The competition was fierce…and dangerous. At first, uncle J'onn seemed as if he didn't want me to compete. I thought maybe it was that he didn't want me coming to Earth. I had seen some of his adventures and they were life threatening and dangerous. But I was not going to give up. I was determined to win! From everything I had seen and heard of Earth up until that point, I found that I…I loved it! I wanted to come see it for myself! And I won! I won the whole competition! My heart soared!" she cried, raising her arms in the air and taking a deep breath. "I was coming to Earth! This was the most exciting time of my life! Now I'm here with all of you and I'm part of the team! I truly love it!"

"We are happy you're here with us as well, M'gann," said Kaldur.

"You could say that again!" said Wally.

"What about you, Derek?" asked Megan.

"Huh?" he asked in confusion.

"What were you doing before the Team?" Megan asked.

"Oh, to be honest, nobody's ever asked me about my story before," Derek replied, scratching the back of his head.

"Why is that?" asked Kaldur.

"Well, I was with the Brotherhood before I joined this team. And everybody already knew exactly who I was so there was no need to ask."

"What, were you like the top dog or something?" joked Wally.

"In a way, yes. My father was one of the most skilled assassins in the Brotherhood and he wanted me to be the same so I began training about at five, about a year earlier than most, and my training was harder most assassins. It was difficult, but all that training paid off in the end when I could take down groups of Templar twice my age when I was ten."

"You never really told us what the Templar and Brotherhood were." Robin commented.

"Yeah, and you did promise to tell us when we were at Cadmus." Wally said.

Derek though for a moment, if he did tell them it could be considered compromising the Brotherhood. _"But, Batman was the one to tell them about the Brotherhood, so as long as I don't reveal any base locations or secrets I should be fine." _"I guess I did." Derek conceited. "Ok, I'll tell you, but you better get comfortable, because this is a _long_ story. No one really has an exact date but several thousand years ago both the Templar Order and the Assassin Brotherhood were founded. The Templar wanted to create a 'perfect world', but through force and the suppression of free will. Assassins like me believe that freedom is everyone's right, even if it means that the human race will still be flawed. Because of our conflicting ideas we have been in a covert war with each other spanning over hundreds of years."

Derek told them of how many historical figures were often Templar or Assassins, how almost all major historical conflicts like Alexander the Great's conquests, the Crusades, and WWII were caused because of their secret conflict. How entire empires were shaped over the course of history from the two opposing sides. Notable assassins like Altiar and Ezio and how they contributed to the Assassin cause.

"Wow." Was all Robin could say when Derek had finished.

"So your war is still going on?" Kaldur asked.

"Yeah, but its not getting easier for the Brotherhood. The Templar Order has been backing up powerful business to get to their goals, while the Brotherhood has been forced underground and our numbers aren't what they use to be."

"Well you have use now." Megan said cheerfully.

"Yeah we can help you kick some Templar butt." Wally exclaimed.

Derek smiled lightly at those words, "Thank you."

"One question, what was with you and that Grandmaster guy?" Robin asked. Derek's eyes widened in surprise, not expecting that question. "I mean you obviously have met him before." Robin continued.

Derek sighed, "His name is Vald, and he's the one who killed my father." Everyone's eyes widened at that.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I think I've had one too many s'mores. I'm gonna hit the old sleeping bag," said Robin, rubbing his stomach.

"Yes! This has been such a wonderful evening but I am excited to sleep in a tent," said Megan.

"I'm right behind you!" cried Wally.

"Yeah, but you're sleeping in this tent right over here," said Robin, grabbing Wally's arm.

"Hey, next time you think we should go camping for real, like at a real camping place instead of just the Cave's backyard?" asked Wally.

"You don't strike me as the outdoorsy type. Tonight we're sleeping about five feet from the Cave entrance, maybe next time we can try a bit down the hill," said Robin.

"That was a fun evening, but I think I will be turning in as well…unless you would like some company," said Kaldur to Conner.

"No, that's okay. I'll turn in soon…I just want to sit here with the fire a bit longer," he replied, staring at the campfire.

"Well, if you need anything, you know we are all here for you," said Kaldur. Conner stared at the fire for a few more minutes before finally turning in.

ACYJACYJACYJACYJACYJ

**Now I know I didn't reveal a whole lot about Derek's personal past, but don't worry that will come eventually.**

**Review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm sorry about how long it took to get his chapter out, but I had this about 90% done when it accidently got deleted. But on the bright side I finally got Assassin's Creed 3 and finished it. I'm to have fun incorporating stuff from that into my story. **

**Thank you **AC111FTW **for telling your friends about this story, I appreciate the publicity. And thank you to everyone who reviewed**

**But I do have some bad news. Because finals are coming up I won't be able to update until Christmas break, so their probably won't be another chapter until January. So I just ask you all to be patient. **

/

Derek sighed as he pulled a box from under his bed. His room was fairly Spartan like, with a stand for his Assassin uniform and a rack that held his weapons (minus his hidden blades which he always wore).

Opening the box, Derek flinched slightly when the light in the room reflected off the weapon. Carefully picking up the weapon, the glare receded greatly, allowing him to get a good look at it. In his hand was a finely crafted sword. He brushed off the thin layer of dust from the gold colored hilt and the gleaming silver blade. It was shaped similarly to a katana sword, however the back was flat, and instead of coming to just one tip, at the middle the blade curved inward, and then went back out, creating another tip.

It was his dad's old blade. He had gotten it during the massacre at the Farm and was the only thing that he had left from his dad. He had always made sure it was safe, which is why he was afraid about using it, in fear of it being broken. Looking up at one of his room's walls he glared at the picture of Vald at the top of the pyramid of pictures representing the Templar chain of command. The majority of them were blank, but he knew for certain that he was the head of the Order.

Thinking back to their last encounter at Masyaf Creed looked back down to the sword. One of the reasons he had gotten the sword out was because of that fight. Creed knew that he wouldn't have been able to win, but he could have prevented himself from being injured so much if he had used the sword. He was hesitant in fear of losing the only object that once belonged to his dad, but Creed realized that he would have wanted him to use it, not let it sit is storage and gather rust. Sighing, Creed put the sword on his belt and tried a few experimental moves to see if it would stay on.

Satisfied at the results Creed was about to take off his uniform when an explosion rocked the mountain.

*BOOOOOM*

Exiting his room, Creed was about to go look for the source of the disturbance when he felt a rumbling behind him. Turning around his eyes widened at the sight of a wall of fire charging towards him.

Reacting quickly Creed fired a dart rope at the ceiling and pulled himself above the ragging inferno. His small victory was short lived as the fire began to rise. Thinking quickly Creed pulled an air vent cover off and crawled inside the vent. Looking back Creed found that he was trapped when the vent hole began to melt and shrink. _'Well, I'm not going that way, but why didn't it just roast me by firing down the vent?"_ Creed thought. _"Ugh, I can figure out the whys later, right now I need to find the others."_

/

Creed was trying to find out of the vents to find the others when he turned a corner and found Robin and Artemis.

"Creed!" Artemis exclaimed, relieved that at least one of her friends was okay.

"Hey guys, met the unwanted house guests yet?" Creed asked.

"Yea, follow us." Robin said. As they crawled through the vent Robin brought up his holo-computer. "Okay there should be a vent covering right in front of you." Artemis took the covering off and the three of them slid down it, bringing them to a room full of machines. Robin brought up his holo-computer again and after a moment of looking at the blueprints that he had downloaded told them, "This way."

The three of them only made it halfway across the scaffolding when another person entered the room. Creed couldn't make out any features due to the fire surrounding the figure. The three of them jumped off the scaffolding after the person raised their hands, causing the fire to grow. They hid behind one of the machines when they noticed that the dials were turning red and the screens were cracking.

"That can't be good." Creed said. As they ran across the room the person saw them and threw fire balls at them. They avoided the flaming projectiles and hid behind another machine.

"In know that other access tunnel is here somewhere." Robin whispered.

"You mean this one?" Artemis asked as Creed pulled of the covering. They trio jumped down, but not before Robin placed an explosive on machine, blowing it up and preventing the attacker from following them.

Creed and Artemis were about to continue when Robin called them back. "Hold on." Ripping off the covering to what appeared to be a port access Robin hooked his holo-computer to it and said, "Locking out the Cave's motion and heat sensors so the enemy can't follow us."

"I ask again, who is the enemy?" Artemis asked.

"Did you see who it was Creed?" Robin asked as he continued to work.

"No, I didn't see who it was." Creed replied.

"Well then let's find out, downloading the Cave's security footage." Robin zoomed into one of the images that had the others on it.

KF was working on one of the motorcycles while Miss Martian was handing him the tools with Superboy watching. Aqualad walked up and said, "I have been meaning to ask, any problem juggling school work with your responsibilities?" Creed frowned slightly at Aqualad's tone, it sounded like he was trying to find something without alerting the others.

"No." Superboy stated simply

"Juggling is just one of my many talents." Kid Flash bragged.

"Doing cheerleading practice has been a bit of a challenge, but my first loyalty is always to the team, this team, not he Bumblebees." Miss Martian replied.

"And Derek doesn't even have to go to school!" KF exclaimed, obviously jealous of the assassin.

"Artemis starts school today; do you think she will have any problems maintaining loyalty?" Aqualad asked. Creed could feel Artemis tense next to him, bristled by Aqualad's words. Creed's frown deepened, now he knew that Aqualad was trying to find something out. Shaking his head clear he focused on the current situation.

"Nah, she'll be fine, after how much more hostile can y.-" Kid Flash was interrupted by an explosion, which took out the camera.

"What happened?" Artemis asked.

"Explosion took out the camera, I'll find another angle." Robin brought up the other images, but they too were taken out, giving the trio no indication to who the assailants were. "That's it, all four are dead." Creed remained stoic, but Artemis had an appalled expression at Robin's words. "The cameras, I meant the cameras, I'm sure the others are fine." Robin quickly amended.

"What's the fastest route to the hanger?" Creed asked.

"Give me a minute." Robin told him, looking at the blueprints to the Cave.

"Yeah, their fine, they all have superpowers, they can handle anything." Artemis distraughtly said.

Creed spared a quick glance at the panicked archer. He could tell from her reactions that this was probably the first time she had been in a situation like this. Truth be told the last time _he_ was in a situation like this was-Creed shuddered slightly at the memory, the screams, the fire, the-_"NO! This is not the time to have traumatic flashbacks, focus on saving your friends!"_ Creed thought to himself, bringing him out of that painful memory.

/

Robin took the covering off and dropped down onto the library floor. Creed and Artemis quickly followed him.

"There's a secret passage behind one of these bookcases," Robin explained.

"Seriously, cliché much?" Artemis asked.

With a smirk Robin replied, "You should see the Batcave." Creed and Artemis followed Robin as he looked for the secret passage. However their search was interrupted by a door opening and footsteps coming towards them. Ducking behind one of the bookcases the trio had their weapons drawn and ready. As the footsteps came closer a robotic monotone voice called out.

"Artemis, Robin, Creed."

"It's Red Tornado!" Artemis exclaimed. Artemis ran out to greet the robot when she came face to face with a robot that was clearly _not_ Red Tornado. As the robot reached for her Creed and Robin pushed her down and rolled under a table.

"Yes on the Red, no on the Tornado!" Robin exclaimed. The trio ran for the exit, only for a female robot come out and shoot fireballs at them. They avoided the fireballs by jumping on the bookcases. Creed and Artemis attacked the robot duo with knives and arrows only for the male robot to draw water from the sprinklers to block their attack. The female robot hit one bookcase and they began to fall over like dominos. Creed and Artemis jumped off the bookcase just as Robin pulled the book that opened the secret passage. The trio got in just in time as the bookcase behind them fell down. They ran down the passageway while the door closed behind them.

"Did you know that Red Tornado had siblings?" Artemis asked.

"No." Robin answered.

They ran down the hallway until they came to an intersection. Just as Creed and Robin were about to make a turn Artemis stopped hem by grabbing their wrists and asked, "Now what? Red Tornado is one of the powerhouses of the League, how are suppose to take down _two_ of him?"

"They do seem a bit user unfriendly." Robin quipped.

"Don't joke!" Artemis exclaimed.

Artemis' rant was interrupted by a voice coming over the speakers. "Attention Robin, attention Artemis, attention Creed, you have exactly ten minutes to surrender your selves or you teammates lives will be extinguished."

/

The trio were running down the hall, heading for the hanger. "Eight minutes." One of the robots called out, alerting the three of them that their friends time was running short.

"We can access the hanger from here." Robin told them.

Hearing a rumbling behind them Creed looked back at the way they came. "Uh, guys." Creed said. The two of them looked at Creed who was pointing down the hallway they just came from. Their eyes widened at the wave of water that was rushing towards them.

"That's not good." Robin said.

"Stop saying that!" Artemis exclaimed. The three of them tried to out run the wave, but in engulfed them before they could make it down the hallway. Creed pulled out a re-breather from his belt, mentally thanking his foresight to stock up on emergency items. Robin also pulled a re-breather, but lost his cape in the process. Swimming over to Artemis Robin gave her his breather to prevent her from drowning. The male robot grabbed Artemis' leg, causing her to lose the breather. She tried hitting the robot, but it simply grabbed her wrists. Creed quickly took out his father's sword and struck the robot in the head. It didn't do much damage, but it was enough to force the robot to let go. Robin grabbed Artemis and he and Creed fired lines up the hallway, getting out of range of the robot and the explosives that Robin left behind.

The three of them burst through the water, finding themselves in the hanger they took a moment to catch their breath until Kid Flash cried out, "Look Out!" The trio ducked underwater to avoid a fireball and swam over to where Kid Flash and Superboy were being held.

"You guys ok?" Creed asked.

"Forget us! Help M'gann!" Superboy shouted, looking at the cage of fire that held Aqualad and Miss Martian.

"Aqualad, Is she…?" Artemis didn't want to finish the question.

"She is unconscious. I fear that she-we cannot survive much longer." Aqualad replied weakly. The trio had to duck back underwater to avoid another fireball. They swam over to the stairs were they were then surrounded by the robots.

Artemis looked at Robin, "I'm almost out of arrows."

"Distraction now!" Robin shouted as he ran down the stairs. Artemis fired an exploding arrow while Creed threw a knife at the pyrokinetic robot. When the smoke cleared the female robot remained unscathed. Robin threw two batarangs at the hydrokinetic robot. The both bounced off, but one impeded itself in the twisted metal that was holding Kid Flash prisoner.

As both robots attacked the trio jumped of the stairs and back into the water, causing the fire and water to hit each other and create steam. They swam down to a ventilation shaft, pulled off the covering and swam up. They broke through the water and gasped for air as they climbed into a dry vent.

The robot's monotonic voice was once again on the speakers. "Six minutes."

"What do we do now?" Artemis asked Robin.

"We save them, that's how this works." Robin replied calmly.

"_Not always."_ Creed thought, but kept his calm yet serious expression in place.

But Artemis wasn't so optimistic. "Maybe that's how it's supposed to work, but those robots already took out our four _super_ powered friends."

"You seem distraught." Creed asked calmly.

"Distraught! M'gann is dying, I'm down to my last arrow and we don't have any superpowers. OF COURSE I'M DISTRAUGHT!" Artemis yelled hysterically.

"Well get traught or get _dead_!" Robin spat back.

That seemed to bring Artemis out her hysteria a bit as she asked in a lower voice, "How can you two be so calm?"

"Experience." Creed stated simply as he followed Robin down the air duct.

"Practice, I've been doing this since I was nine." Robin replied in a similar tone as he crawled down the duct.

"What good is that now? What chance do we have against unrelenting machines?" Artemis shot back.

Robin seemed to have an epiphany and stopped crawling, "Duh, their machines and one electromagnetic pulse will shut down any machine within it range."

"Great," Artemis replied sarcastically, "But do either of you have one in your utility belts, because I don't have one in my quiver."

Creed simply shook his head while Robin said, "Fresh out, but I'm betting we can make one." Activating the earpiece that was connected to the batarangs that was impeded in the twisted metal that was holding Kid Flash Robin asked, "Sound doable KF?"

"_Totally doable!"_ KF responded.

The robot's warning interrupted their victory, "Five minutes."

/

The trio quickly got to the med lab per Kid Flash's instructions. _"Med lab, X- ray machine. You'll find a small vacuum called a vercator that converts high energy pulses."_ Following KF's instructions Robin pulled a panel off the x-ray machine, revealing the vercators. _"Reprogram the microwave conversion from X-rays to EMPs, with a cascading energy vector directed outward." _

After quickly reprogramming it Robin removed the vercator. "A ripple effect. Like dropping a stone in the pond."

"_A stone with 10 to the 12th power yeah."_

"We'll need to hook it up to the Cave's main generator." Robin told Artemis and Creed.

"Which is where?" Creed asked, already knowing he probably wouldn't like the answer.

/

Creed found out he was right about him not liking the answer. The three of them were in a hallway overlooking the main hanger. Activating his communicator Robin told KF, "Start distraction."

"Hey Red Tomato! Whose your girlfriend Red Onion?" KF yelled, trying to catch the robot's attention.

Superboy also joined in and shouted out, "Yeah, and by that way, this is the worst death trap ever! We can escape any time we want!"

While Superboy and Kid Flash were holding the robot's attention, Robin, Artemis and Creed made their way to the other side of the room. "Cover us." Robin told Artemis. Artemis drew he last arrow while Robin a fired line and he and Creed used it to zip lined over to the generator.

Creed covered Robin while he hooked up the modified vercator to the generator. "Rerouting power now." Creed and Robin waited for the EMP to shut the robots down but nothing happened.

"What's wrong?" Creed asked.

Looking over the vercator Robin saw that it was a little too small. "The circuit's incomplete. I need something conducible, like a piece of metal."

Creed turned to Robin with one of his throwing knives in hand. "Here use this."

Robin was about to grab it when Artemis shouted, "ROBIN, CREED LOOK OUT!"

Robin and Creed were unable to react in time to avoid the wave of water that hit them full force. The hydrokinetic robot then captured the two of them in pillars of water. While the robot left Robin in the water until he blacked out, it threw Creed against the wall. Creed's vision blurred as he tried to stay awake, but the lack of air and the blow took their toll as the assassin fell to the ground unconscious. The assassin's last thought was, _"I failed again."_

/

Creed woke up coughing up some water. "Ugh." He groaned as he tried to stand up he found he was still a bit disoriented and almost fell, only to be caught be Robin.

Putting one of the larger boy's arms over his shoulder to support him Robin asked, "Are you ok?"

"Ugh. I desperately need an aspirin." Creed said while rubbing the back of his head.

Robin smiled, "Come on let's get you over to the others."

After few minutes Creed had recovered enough to stand on his own and the team was attempting to free KF and Superboy.

Robin explained to them what had happed when he and Creed had got caught. "Figured my only shot was to 'surrender' and pretend to drown before I actually did, blacked out though. What about you Creed?"

"I wasn't able to do anything before that tin can slammed me into the wall." The assassin responded still rubbing the back of his head.

"Why did it do that?" Artemis asked, "It could of have just left you to drown like Robin."

Creed just shrugged helplessly. "The important thing is that we are all alive," Aqualad told everyone. Everyone nodded in agreement, minus Artemis and KF, who as usual, where arguing.

"Would you quit messing with that thing and cut us free already?" KF asked while Artemis was trying to get a laser drill to work.

"It's not working genius," Artemis shot back, "EMP shuts down all machines remember?"

"All machines present at the time." The team looked up the see Red Tornado coming towards them. As he landed he asked, "What has occurred?"

"A little visit from your family," Robin explained, looking towards the two downed robots.

"Your extremely _nasty _family," Artemis added.

"I was not aware I had relations." Red Tornado told them as he walked over to his 'siblings'.

"Where were you?" Superboy asked accusingly.

"Monitor duty on the Watchtower. When it became clear something was wrong I attempted to zeta tube to the Cave only to find them offline. I then transported to Province and flew from there."

Just as Red finished speaking Sphere unlodged itself from the wall and the laser drill turned on. "The pulse has worn off." Robin and KF exclaimed as one.

The words were scarcely out of their mouths when Red Tornado began to suck the air from the room. Creed fell to his knees along with the rest of the team and grasped at his throat and tried to stay awake. But he was eventually overcome by the lack of oxygen and fell to the ground.

/

Creed woke up with a groan. _"I could _really_ use that aspirin now."_ He thought. As he tried to stand up he felt a hand grab his wrist and help him get back on his feet. When his vision finally cleared he saw that it was Black Canary who had helped him up. "You ok?" She asked with a motherly voice.

Creed nodded his head and caught the end of Artemis' question, "-were are they?"

Robin turned from Batman, after no doubt filling his mentor in on what happed and said, "Their gone. All three of them."

/

**I hope you liked it. Now Review!**

**Happy Holidays!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey everyone I have the next chapter out and it's only about 38 hours late! **

**Ok, before you start reading the story you should really read this author note if you asked any questions in your reviews, and if you didn't you should still read it.**

**Ages: In this story Creed is 16 and Cheshire is 17. **

**This story **_**will **_**continue into** **Young Justice: Invasion, in fact I can't finish my plotline without it. **

**I'm sorry to those who wanted to see an Apple make an appearance, but there will be no Apples of Eden in this story. In fact, none of the modern characters in the Assassin Creed games will be in this fic. **

**To those whose questions I didn't answer either your questions will eventually be answered in the story, or I don't have an answer to it yet.**

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While some of the League were repairing the Cave, the team sat down, waiting for answers. Green Arrow placed a bowl of pretzel on the table, only for Wally to refuse. "Thanks, but no thanks."

"What we want are answers, about Red Tornado and his siblings." Robin told Green Arrow with a glare.

"Yeah, exactly!" Wally agreed. Green Arrow picked up the bowl, only for Wally to grab it out of his hands and start munching on them.

Derek was waiting for Kaldur to finish talking to Batman over in the corner. But they were interrupted when Conner charged at Kaldur and lifted him up, shouting, "YOU KNEW! That android and his maniac family nearly killed M'g-us!"

"Conner what are you doing!?" Megan asked as she flew over to them.

"Kaldur knew that there was a traitor on the team and said nothing!"

"You _knew_?" Robin asked in disbelief.

"And didn't tell us?" Wally asked in a similar tone.

"I sought to protect the team." Kaldur told them, trying to explain his actions.

"From what?!" Derek shouted.

"Knowledge that could of saved our lives?" Artemis added.

"Enough." Batman said, silencing everyone. Conner released his grip on Kaldur. "With Red Tornado… missing the team will now be overseen by rotating supervisors. Captain Marvel has volunteered to take the first shift."

Said hero walked up to the team and said, "I'm really looking forward to hanging with you guys." The team exchanged glances at the behavior of the elder superhero.

Turning back to Kaldur Conner said, "Once I dismantle Red Tornado, you and I are gonna-"

"Red Tornado is a member of the Justice League, making him a League responsibility. You _will_ leave him to us." Batman told the kryptonian clone in a tone that left no room for argument. "I have another assignment for this team." Batman brought up a holographic screen that showed a newspaper article. One of Derek's eyebrows rose at the headline on the newspaper.

"Gotham Mayor attacked by Guerilla Gorilla?" Wally asked in disbelief.

"Batman please, tell me you're not sending us on this joke of a wild ape chase." Robin asked.

"I _never_ joke about the mission." Batman responded, silencing Robin. "I've checked the sources, studied the patterns, Mayor Hill's encounter is only the latest in a series of incidences. Aqualad you and your team will depart for India and check this out." Before Aqualad could give the order to head to the bioship the rest of the team was walking, giving him the cold shoulder, except for Kid Flash who scoffed, "Your team."

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Then bioship flew over the Indian jungle in stealth mode, hovering over a small clearing long enough for Creed, Robin and Artemis to jump out and check the perimeter. The rest of the team soon followed. The trio walked back towards the landing zone. "All clear." Robin told them.

"Switch to stealth." Aqualad ordered, "We will review mission parameters."

"Parameter? We don't need no stinkin' parameters." Kid Flash said as he activated his suit's stealth function.

"It's recon, we know what to do." Robin agreed. Ignoring Aqualad's orders to stay the duo ran into the thick vegetation.

"Come on, I'll keep you safe." Superboy told Miss M as he grabbed her arm, only for the shape shifter to wrench away from him. "I just want to protect you."

"Like Aqualad protected us?" Artemis asked sarcastically, "I'm not sure your _protection_ or your patronizing is good for our health." And with that the two girls walked away.

"Why didn't you stop them? You're supposed to be in charge." Superboy asked angrily. Cutting off whatever Aqualad was about to say Superboy leaped off into the distance.

Sighing Aqualad said, "Well Creed it looks as if it-" Aqualad trailed off when he realized that the assassin was no longer with them, having snuck off during the arguing.

"Did I miss the part where you actually said what the plan was?" Captain Marvel asked.

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Creed sighed as he trekked through the dark jungle. He felt conflicted about how he should feel towards Aqualad. While he could understand why Aqualad had kept this information secret, he did not _condone_ keeping such information secret. He could have prevented a lot of people from dying had he known Vald was a traitor.

Creed's internal debate was interrupted by his instincts which were screaming to get down. Trusting his instincts Creed dropped to the ground. Less than half a second later a large shadow passed over him. Getting back up Creed looked at his would be killer. Before him stood a spotted leopard, growling as it circled the assassin. But there were two things that Creed noticed that showed that his was no random attack. One, it had two saber like fangs, and second, the fact that there was a collar on its neck.

Creed drew his sword as he warily watched the mutated big cat circle him. Without warning the predator lunged at him again. Creed rolled to the side; avoid the leopard's razor sharp claws. However, by the time he turned around to face the leopard it had already made the turn back to him and was mid leap. Creed wasn't fast enough to avoid the big cat as it crashed into him. Creed lost his sword and his breath as he was knocked to the ground.

"Ugh!" Creed looked up, his eyes widening as the leopard's head drew closer to deliver the final blow. Creed's hand shot up in a futile attempt to hold the apex predator back. But as the big cat's head came closer to his, his hands grabbed the collar on its neck.

Creed slowed, but did not stop the leopard's razor sharp fangs from reaching its target. Creed could feel the warm breath of the leopard's mouth as it inched closer to his head. _"Wow, killed by mutant leopard was not one of the ways I thought I would die."_ The leopard's fangs were about to brush his skin when-

-CRACK-

The strain from Creed pushing back and the leopard pulling forward was too much for the collar to handle, and it snapped in two. Once the collar had been removed the leopard ceased its attack on Creed, got off of him and ran into the jungle. _"I guess that answers how to deal with any wild animals here." _Creed thought as he picked up his sword.

"_Link established."_ He heard Miss Martian say over the telepathic link.

_Should he be giving us orders? And should you really be following them?" _Artemis asked.

"_Listen please."_ Aqualad begged.

"_Oh, good. Aqualad's voice in my head. I've so missed that."_ Kid Flash sarcastically thought.

"_Hey Kaldur, KF and I were attacked by giant vultures. Course, since we're moles, you probably think we attacked ourselves?"_ Robin told Aqualad.

"_If he did, he wouldn't tell you." _Artemis sarcastically thought.

Creed sighed in exasperation, and tried to block out the growing headache. While he didn't like what Aqualad did, he knew he had a good reason to hide such information from the team. _"Guys, I don't thi-"_ Creed tried to make the team see reason, but was interrupted by various team members' rants.

"_Trust is a two-way street."_ Artemis said, clearly trying to make Aqualad feel guilty.

"_They'd hate it if we kept secrets."_ Miss Martian said.

Creed finally had enough of this child-like bickering. _"Enough!"_ Creed shouted over the link, silencing everyone. _"While I do not like what Aqualad did, I'm sure that he has a good reason to why he kept such information secret, but now is not the time _nor_ the place to argue about who is in command."_ The team remained in a shocked silence, never before had they heard Creed speak in such a commanding tone. Aqualad was the first to regain his voice.

"_Thank you Creed, I am extremely grateful for your support." _Aqualad thanked over the link. _"Captain Marvel has been captured, and we must act as a team to save him."_

"_Under _your_ leadership?"_ Kid Flash asked sarcastically, having regained control of his voice after Creed's outburst. _"I don't thin-"_

Aqualad interrupted Kid Flash, _"This is _not _up for debate. You all chose me to be your leader. When the mission is over, if you wish to select a new leader, I will happily step down. But as Creed said this is not the time or the place to argue and until that time, I _am_ in command here."_

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After regrouping the team tracked Captain Marvel and his captor to a facility deep in the jungle. The concrete was old and worn, and foliage had grown on portions of it. _"They've been here for a while." _Creed thought to himself as the team stealthily made their way to the perimeter of building's security system.

"_I'll fly over." _Miss Martian offered over the link.

"_Negatory."_ Kid Flash said as he looked through his goggles. _"The field extends like a dome over the whole compound."_

"_Pylons are insulated, but one good shock could cause a momentary gap."_ Robin told everyone.

Artemis said, _"I see a target."_ Creed looked and he too could see a tiny red button on the front of the building.

"_We must be careful, even if we get through the pylons there will probably be a secondary security system."_ Creed warned everyone.

"_Understood. Be ready, all of you."_ Aqualad told them before he ran up to the pylons and used his electrical energy to create a tiny gap in the dome.

"_Now."_ Kid Flash told Artemis. Artemis didn't acknowledge, but fired. The arrow flew through the gap and hit the button, shutting down the dome. The team quickly moved down the hill towards the building. As Creed ran down the hill he looked for any sign of a second security system. He found it on the roof, but not in the way he was expecting.

Sitting on top of the building was a large monkey with a collar on it. The monkey screamed, and other monkeys jumped off the roof as the alarms blared, alerting the occupants to the team's presence.

Recognizing the collars Creed threw a knife which sliced the collar in half. The monkey, now free, ran off into the jungle. Creed was about to tell the others about the collars when another monkey attacked him, pinning him on the ground.

"Remove their collars." Creed heard Aqualad tell the team.

With great difficulty, Creed managed to get his hook blade latched on to the collar and pulled it off. "Way ahead of you." Creed said. The monkey, just like its comrade fled into the jungle. The others had also managed to free the monkeys that were attacking them as well.

Creed got up in time to see a gorilla that was holding a gun throw Miss Martian, who had been trying to sneak past him, to the ground. "Get your paws off her, you darn dirty ape." Kid Flash growled out as he charged the large simian. Unfortunately the speedster just bounced off the gorilla's belly, sending him flying back.

However, that distraction allowed Miss Martian the time to get up and then telekinetically throw the gorilla through the wall. The team ran into the building and found Captain Marvel strapped to a table with one of the collars on his neck and what looked like a brain in a jar staring at them. _"Okay, not what I was expecting."_ Creed thought to himself.

"It's the Brain." Kid Flash told the others.

"Ugh, I can see it's a brain." Artemis told him sarcastically.

"Not 'a brain,' the Brain," Kid Flash clarified.

The Brain chose then to speak up, "In the flesh, uh, so to speak." Turning to the gorilla the Brain simply said, "Mallah."

Mallah took out a remote and pressed a button. Several pylons came out of the floor and activated around the team. Creed felt his limbs go numb as he fell to the ground with the others. _"Miss Martian, Superboy, now."_ Aqualad ordered over the link.

Miss Martian's eyes glowed as she telekinetically grabbed the remote from Mallah and deactivated the pylons. As the team got up off the ground Superboy burst through the wall along with a giant white wolf. The wolf lunged at Mallah, knocking him to the ground. As Mallah got up Kid Flash also knocked him to the ground with his super speed. Miss Martian picked Mallah up with her telekinesis and threw him against the ground. Creed, Robin and Artemis used their various projectiles to render Mallah's machine gun useless.

The team, including the now free Captain Marvel surrounded the two villains. Mallah roared in anger, but Superboy just cracked his knuckles and growled out, "Try it, I hate monkeys."

Mallah was about to accept Superboy's challenge when the Brain said, "No, Mallah. This will not be our Waterloo" The Brian's body began to expand and connect; forming what appeared to be a giant weapon. "Au revoir, mesa me!"

"Get down!" Kid Flash shouted. Just as it seemed the Brain was about to fire the lights went out, throwing the room into total darkness. A minute later the lights came back on, but there was no sign of the Brain or Mallah. "Wait, that big weapon thing was a light switch?"

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The team had finished freeing the rest of the animals from the control of the collars and was now preparing to leave. "What are you grinning about?" Artemis asked Kid Flash.

"One word: souvenir!" He held up Mallah's red hat, and put it on.

"Two words: gorilla lice," Artemis said in a sing song voice. Creed bit back a laugh at Kid Flash's disgusted face as he quickly took the hat off his head.

Superboy was petting the giant white wolf that he had found in the jungle. "The rest of the pack is gone! What are you still doing here?" Superboy asked the wolf, who was nudging his hand.

"I think he wants to stay with you!" Miss Martian said.

"Can I keep him?" Superboy sounding like a little kid who was asking his mom if he could keep a stray dog he found.

"Haha! First the sphere, now this beast? Dude, you sure make a habit of collecting strays!" Kid Flash laughed.

"Maybe because he's such a stray himself," Miss Martian told him fondly.

"Well, he's gonna need a name! How's about Krypto?"

The wolf snarled, while the clone said, "Pass."

"Besides, isn't that taken?" Miss M asked.

As they all loaded up into the bioship Robin spoke up, "Look, I need to know, why did you keep the mole Intel a secret?"

Aqualad turned to look at the expectant faces of the team. After a moment of silence he said, "The source of the tip was Sportsmaster."

"What? You can't trust him!" Artemis exploded. Creed raised an eyebrow at her unexpected reaction.

"I do not," Aqualad reassured her, "It seems possible, even likely that he was attempting to divide the Team with false information."

"And given how this mission went, he nearly succeeded," Robin mused.

"But you had to consider the possibility that it was true," Creed stated.

"Yes, as leader I did. And which case I did not wish to alert the traitor."

Robin sighed, "I hate to say it, but, makes sense."

"I am still prepared to step down," Aqualad said.

"All in favor of keeping Aqualad as leader?" Kid Flash asked while raising his hand. Everyone else did the same.

"Guess it's unanimous," Captain Marvel shook Aqualad's hand, "See you tomorrow!"

"You are not coming back with us?"

"Na, gotta fly!" And with that he took off, becoming a speck in the sky.

As Superboy was considering names for his new pet Aqualad stopped Creed, "Creed." The assassin looked at the Atlantean wondering what he wanted to say. "Back at the Cave you seemed to share the other's anger at my decision, but in the jungle you supported me, why?"

Creed stayed silent for a minute before answering, "I knew that keeping the information from us was the best option as to not alert the traitor, but this whole 'mole' business just brought back some bad memories and clouded my judgment."

Aqualad nodded before asking, "What do you mean by 'bad memories'?"

Creed sighed, "Let's just say the last time I had to deal with a traitor a lot of good people died." Aqualad's eyes widened in shock at this statement as Creed walked into the bioship and thought solemnly_, "Including my father."_

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**I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Ugh! School sucks! I wanted to get another original chapter out before this one, but all the prep for AP testing, shattered that dream, so I'm just going to post this instead. **

**Enjoy!**

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Derek and Robin were currently sparring in the training area. As Derek threw a right hook Robin ducked under it and tried to elbow Derek in the gut- only for the assassin's arm to deflect the offending elbow. They had been in a stalemate with each other for the last ten minutes. While Robin had been trained by _the_ Batman, Derek had been training as an Assassin his entire life, making them equally matched.

Derek aimed a roundhouse kick at the younger boy's side, only for Robin to roll under his leg. The two of them turned to face each other, bodies tense, only to relax as the lights of the training room dimmed and Connor, Megan and Wolf walked in.

"Nice match, you almost had me earlier with that hold of yours." Derek complimented Robin. Out of all of the team members Robin was the one Derek got along the best with. Perhaps it was because they were two of the only non-super powered members on the team besides Artemis. Derek got along with Artemis, but he found her to be closed off from the rest of the team. Not that he could say he didn't do the same thing, he had told the team little about his past.

"Thanks, you were pretty good their too, we should spar more often." Robin grinned. Kaldur, who had been observing the match along with Zatara and Capitan Marvel, walked over to join the conversation.

"You do know they're a couple, right?" Robin asked in an undertone, looking over at Connor and Megan.

Kaldur smiled softly. "I believe I knew before they did."

Derek's eyes caught the movement of Wally and Artemis walking towards them, for once not arguing. The assassin grinned, "Should we tell them?"

Kaldur frowned sternly, "It is not our place."

Derek just rolled his eyes. _"Killjoy."_

"So if Zatara's our babysitter of the week, why is _he_ still here?" Wally asked, pointing at Captain Marvel, who was eating a chocolate bar. "And why is he eating my snacks?!" Wally asked in an almost childish anger.

"_Recognized: Batman: Zero-Two."_

"Computer, national news," Batman said before the Zeta-Beam light stopped glowing.

At once, a large holographic screen appeared and Cat Grant was reporting live from Metropolis.

"_The initial attack was short-lived, but Metropolis was only granted a short reprieve."_ The camera then changed to a large plant, surrounding one of the many tall buildings in the city with massive vines, before crushing it to pieces. _"And despite the intervention of Superman and the Justice League, there seems to be no end in sight."_

"Should we get out there?" Robin asked.

Batman turned to look at us. "No," he said shortly. "The League will soon have the situation under control. That's not why I'm here. According to your Intel, Sportsmaster supplied Cadmus Blockbuster Formula to Kobra."

"Who combined it with Bane's Venom to create Kobra-Venom," Derek piped in.

"Which the Brain used to create his animal army," Robin added.

Conner patted Wolf affectionately. "And upgrade Wolf."

"The Brain also used intervention collars likes the ones used at Belle Reve Penitentiary," M'gann furthered.

"Batman, is it possible that that plant-thingy's on Kobra-Venom too?" Artemis inquired.

"I had Green Lantern run a spot analysis," Batman informed, and a keyboard appeared in front of him and brought up another screen with the analysis results. "The vine does contain a trace of some sort of Kobra-Venom variant."

"These cannot be coincidences; unrelated criminals are cooperating with one another world wide." Kaldur added.

"Exactly. It's now clear enemies have formed some kind of …secret society of supervillians. The attack on Metropolis is only the beginning," Batman said.

"Got that right," Robin checked his own computer, "Plant creatures have sprouting in Gotham City, Paris, Star City, Tepei-" The screens suddenly went to static.

"Dude!" Wally exclaimed.

"It's not me!" Robin said, typing furiously, "Someone's cutting off the satellite signal. All satellite signals!"

The screen suddenly came back, only instead of images of the plant creatures it was of a man with white skin, green hair and an insane grin on his face. While Derek wasn't as versed as the others in his supervillian knowledge, even he recognized the Joker.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt your regularly schedule mayhem to bring you _this important message_." He pulled out a switchblade and then moved the camera to six other supervillains. "From the _In_justice League!"

The camera zoomed in to Count Vertigo, who began to speak. "We are responsible for the attacks on your cities. If you wish to save them, a ransom of ten billion American dollars is required. Delivery instructions have been sent to the United Nations. There is no time limit. But, the longer your governments wait…"

Joker moved the camera back to him. "The more we get to have our… _jollies_." And then he proceeded to laugh before static appeared again.

"Roger that Aquaman, the UN will prepare the ransom as a fallback, but it won't come to that," Batman spoke into his earpiece.

Robin rewound the transmission, "Count Vertigo, The Joker, Poison Ivy, Ultra Humanite, Atomic Skull, Black Atom, Wotan…_seven_ heavy hitters! Probably behind nearly everything and everyone we faced."

"There's your secret society," Wally muttered.

"Not so secret anymore," Artemis replied.

"Perhaps after India, they realized we would deduce the truth and saw no point in hiding any longer." Kaldur mused.

"No." All eyes turned to Derek, "An organization that's planned this entire thing out, carefully, and slowly, wouldn't have made themselves public. They would have used proxies to do their work to avoid being ID and located."

"How do you know that?" Wally asked.

Derek just gave the speedster a deadpan look.

"Oh, right whole secret society thing."

"The Justice League will handle the plants. I have a different job for this team."

"Aww, man!" Wally complained, and Artemis smacked him on the arm.

"With the plants are attacking so many locations simultaneously, there must be a central control system. Your mission is to destroy it."

"You realize what you're really asking them to do?" Zatara spoke for the first time.

"They're ready. All of them," Batman said with no hesitation.

"Ready? Ready for what?" Wally asked, then snapped as Artemis hit him again, "Will you cut that-"

"Hello, Wally! If the big guns are fighting plants, who do you think we'll be fighting?" Artemis asked.

"I dunno! Guess we'll-" He turned as Artemis pointed to the Injustice League, "Ooohhh."

"Well, Batman, I trust you're right," Zatara said.

"And I trust you can locate the enemy," Batman in turn said to him.

"Indeed. Wotan's involvement suggests sorcery is part of how the plants are controlled. Robin, if you would provide a holomap."

Robin bent over his keyboard and brought up a holographic image of the world.

"I'll search for concentrated sources of activity," The magician put his hands out in front of him, and spoke backwards. The holomap stopped spinning and focused on one point.

"There. That is where you will find the Injustice League's central control system."

"Coordinates locked in. The Louisiana Bayou."

"We are on our way," Kaldur promised.

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Creed checked his blades for the 5th time and recounted all of his knives for the 6th. Everyone else was doing something similar to calm their nerves. This was their first time fighting villains at this level as a team.

It wasn't until Kid Flash spoke up that the tension broke. "What's in the duffel?"

"Plan B," Aqualad responded, not elaborating.

"Ugh!" Miss Martian suddenly exclaimed, making everyone turn to her.

"You alright?" Superboy questioned.

"Dizzy," Miss Martian said, holding her face.

"Martians get _airsick_?" Robin asked curiously.

"She _does_ look a bit greener than usual," Kid Flash piped in.

"Not me, _her_," Miss Martian responded.

"I feel fine," Artemis said incredulously.

"Not her," Miss Martian explained. "The _Bio-Ship_. She's trying to shield us, but–"

Creed suddenly found himself thrust forward in his seat, and had the wind knocked out of him from the force of the impact, even with the seatbelt on. Creed's eyes widened at the sight of three gigantic vines pulling the ship into the water.

There was a thump above us and everyone whirled around. The top of the Bio-Ship was ripped open by the villain Robin had identified as Black Atom, and Miss Martian groaned in pain. The seatbelt around us disappeared and Creed quickly grabbed his rebreather just after Superboy punched the villain away. The vines pulled the entire ship under the water and water began to pour into the Martian airship from the hole Black Atom made.

"No. No way I'm nearly drowning three missions in a row." Artemis said, grabbing a rebreather before handing one to KF.

"Wow. Uh, thanks." Kid Flash took the rebreather, surprised at Artemis' action. Creed would have made a joke about it if they weren't in such a serious situation.

"Megan we need to get out open a hatch." Superboy said.

Miss Martian slapped herself on the head, "Hello Megan. Of course." A few seconds later, Miss Martian dived down and opened up a hatch at the bottom of the Bio-Ship.

"_Out, everyone out!"_ Aqualad ordered over the mental link. Everyone all headed towards the hole, swimming up to the surface.

The team swam to the shore and watched from behind the tree line as the Bio ship was pulled underwater. Before they could do anything an intense pain filled their heads. Creed felt like his head was about to split in two. The pain stopped when Aqualad pushed Vertigo away using the lake water.

"_Robin, Creed, Miss Martian, disappear! We will keep them busy! You three will fulfill the mission objective!"_

_Creed and Robin quickly blended into the trees while Miss Martian activated her cloaking and joined them, heading in the direction of the Injustice League base. _

_Robin led the way, using his holomap to guide the three of them in the quickly darkening forest. _"_I've lost contact with Aqualad and the others,"_ Miss Martian said over the link. _"Should we–"_

"_Sorry, but that's not what we're supposed to do,"_ Robin replied, shaking his head.

_"We have a mission to finish." _Creed agreed.

"_This is,"_ Robin spoke, pulling the brush out of the way. _"The Injustice League's central control system."_

Their HQ looked like a large green bulb with triangular designs on the bulb and some vines emerging from the top of it.

_"So is that giant plant thing the antenna?" _Creed asked mentally.

_"I looks like its being used to control the other plants worldwide," __Robin mentally agreed._

_Creed tensed, someone was about to attack them. But before he could react vines shot up out of the ground and ensnared the three of them. Creed winced in pain as the vines tightened around him._

Creed saw Ultra-Humanite appear next to Poison Ivy, taking aim at the three of them with his rifle. But before he could fire Miss Martian telekinetically forced the gun off target, making it hit the vines instead. Free of his restraints Creed threw one of his smoke bombs at the two villains, blinding them to their escape. The villains began to attack blindly, trying to get a lucky hit. As the three of them avoided the attacks from the two villains Miss M said, _"Robin, Creed she's made contact."_

_"Who, Artemis?"_ Robin asked.

_"No."_ Miss Martian answered in an annoyed tone as Wotan, Black Atom, and Count Vertigo flew over them with the rest of the team trapped in a mystic cage. As they flew over the Bio-ship de-cloaked and struck Wotan. Without Wotan to maintain the cage the team was freed as they fell to the ground. With the Injustice League now fighting their freed captives Robin, Creed and Miss Martian went to fulfill their mission objective.

Sneaking around all the fighting Miss Martian telekinetically lifted them up to the plant antenna. Creed and Robin went to quick work placing explosives all over it. Backing up Creed could faintly hear Ivy screaming in fear for "her baby" above the sounds of the battle. The explosions decimated the antenna structure, burning it to the ground. "Timber." Robin deadpanned. Screaming in rage Ivy launched vines at them, only for Miss Martian to use her telekinesis to rip them apart. Miss Martian's victory was short lived as Atomic Skull blasted her out of the sky. Creed immediately jumped off the roof to avoid any other attacks and aimed a flying kick to the face of Poison Ivy.

"Kill them. Kill them all!" Count Vertigo ordered.

Before anyone could react Wotan fired bolts of lightning at the team. Creed gritted his teeth in pain as the electricity invaded his body, using it as a conductor to reach the Earth beneath his feet. Creed could vaguely hear KF shouting no before a bright light engulfed the bayou. The lightning suddenly stopped and Creed moved out of the way of a vine that was going to crush him. Creed and Miss M dodged the various vines, only to be overcome by the same painful sensation they felt when they crashed. "Ugh." Creed grunted as he tried to stand up, but the pain in his skull was making it difficult to look strait, much less stand. Kid Flash suddenly struck Count Vertigo, the source of the pain, and Creed joined Artemis mid air. Artemis struck Vertigo with a flying kick to the face and Creed struck Ivy in the chin, knocking the two supervillains to the ground.

Creed rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a blast from Atomic Skull. Creed threw a bomb at him, only for it to be blasted out of the sky. Skull took aim a Creed again, but the sound of Wotan being struck to the ground caught their attention. Everyone's battles stopped and they looked up to see the _entire_ Justice League descending onto the battlefield. The Injustice League found themselves surrounded and outnumbered.

"Its over." Batman said. The villains, seeing the writing on the wall raised their hands in surrender.

"There will be another day," Vertigo promised.

"Another day? ANOTHER DAY? There won't be another day! Not for any of us!" The Joker raised his hands and plants rose up from the ground everywhere, releasing a green gas.

"Joker Venom spores! Don't breathe!" Batman ordered, and struck the laughing Joker in the face, knocking him out.

"Fear not!" Doctor Fate made a cross, and sucked the gas out of the atmosphere. "Fate has intervened!"

As Dr. Fate flew to the ground Creed noticed something. _"Where's Aqualad?"_ As Fate touched the ground Kid Flash, who's arm was now in a sling Creed noticed, exploded in anger. "What were you thinking? How could you let him put on the Helmet? Nabu will never release him now. Kaldur will be trapped inside Doctor Fate forever." Creed's eyes widened at that statement. After a moment of silence Fate raised his hands and pulled the helmet off with ease, releasing Kaldur.

"Nabu let you go?" Kid Flash asked in shock.

"He almost did not, but your friend Kent was most helpful. He says hello," Aqualad told him with a small smile.

"We're done here. The super villain's secret society was been neutralized. As for your performance," Batman let the verdict hang in the air before saying, "It was satisfactory." The team exchanged grins, that was about as high a praise as you could get from Batman.

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"Impressive. The plant creatures have proven their usefulness as potential weapons. More importantly the so-called heroes now believe our secret society to revealed and crushed. With the Injustice League acting as our proxies we are once again free to operate with impunity." Vandal Savage said as he walked out of the shadows. Queen Bee, Ocean Master and Ra's al Ghul fell into line on his left and Lex Luthor, the Brain, Klarion and Vald fell in on his right. "And shadows still conceal our Light."

Vald could barley suppress a smirk beneath his mask as he thought, _"Some more than others."_

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**Ok, time to answer some questions.**

**I do have plans for Connor from AC3 in the story, but I'm still working out the details.**

**I wont be doing anything with the sword of Eden, but I am considering doing something with the Great Willow tea from the AC3 DLC, but I don't have the the DLC so I'll have to do more research, but thank you for the suggestions.**

**I hoped you liked this chapter and REVIEW! **


	15. Chapter 15

**Ok good news: this is a new chapter-bad news: this isn't a Creed/Cheshire chapter-better news: the next chapter will not only have Creed/Cheshire but the team will finally meet Vald!**

**Enjoy!**

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Derek smirked as he threw Robin to the ground. The younger boy grunted as he got off the ground and tried to deliver a punch to the gut which Derek easily blocked, only to have Robin's foot come into contact with his side. The entire team minus Wally was training. Wally was currently reclining in a chair and having Captain Marvel serving him hand and foot.

"Good work everyone. In fact, it's been a very productive week," Black Canary praised.

"Yeah, for everyone except Kid Malingerer," Artemis smirked. Derek smirked at the jib; Wally _had_ been sitting on the couch for the entire week watching TV while the rest of the team trained.

Wally sipped his lemonade, "Hey! Arm broken in combat against the Injustice League here!" He protested, waving his cast in the air.

"I really enjoyed being your, uh, den mother this week," Canary said, trying to prevent an argument.

"RECOGNIZED: ZATARA 11." The computer announced. The Justice League magician then brought up a computer screen and typed something in.

The zeta tube reactivated and the computer droned, "ACCESS: GRANTED. ZATANNA ZATARA A03. AUTHORIZATION: ZATARA 11." The entire team watched in interest as a girl wearing what looked like a school uniform stepped out of the Zeta tube's glow.

"Zatanna, this is the Team," Zatara waved towards the assembled team. The girl looked around nervously, even hugging one of her arms a bit. "Team, my daughter, Zatanna."

Megan went over to greet the nervous girl, "Hi, I'm-"

"Robin!" Robin shouted, jumping in front of the Martian before regaining his composure. "I mean, _I'm_ Robin. She's Megan. That's Wally, Artemis, Kaldur, Conner, and Derek."

"Welcome to the Cave," Kaldur greeted with a respectful nod.

Zatanna spoke hesitantly, "Uh, thanks."

Robin quickly turned back to her. "So, are y-you joining the Team?" He asked, uncharacteristically stuttering.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Zatara interjected. "This is strictly a visit. Though I _am_ sorry we missed the training. It's something from which Zatanna could benefit."

_"__Do the rest of you get the impression we're still on probation with Zatara?" _Megan asked over the link as Zatara conversed with Black Canary.

_"Not just Zatara, I mean, why is Marvel still hanging around?" _Conner added.

_"Because we like having him around!" _Wally said.

_"You like having him around because he waits on __you__ hand and foot."_ Artemis shot back.

_And your point is?" _Wally asked, not even bothering to protest against the accusation.

_"It almost makes one nostalgic from Red Tornado's tenure as our supervisor." _Kaldur commented.

Robin mentally scoffed. _"Yeah. At least he trusts us."_

Conner grew enraged. _"If you ignore the fact that we shouldn't have trusted _him_! He betrayed us! That machine nearly got M– all of us _killed_!"_

_"But he didn't,"_ Derek said in a much calmer tone_, __"Think about it, he could have kept on sucking out the air while we were unconscious and killed us, why didn't he?"_ Derek knew from personal experience that a traitor wouldn't have wasted an opportunity like that.

Before anyone could answer Zatanna stepped up. "Are you guys having a psychic conversation? …Cause I can't decide if that's cool or… really rude."

Zatara and Canary stopped speaking and looked towards the team. They held out for about a minute before Connor final broke. "Alright, fine. We were talking about Tornado. It's been weeks since his attack and the League hasn't told us _anything_."

"The League is searching for Tornado as well as the other androids _and_ their creator, T.O. Morrow. Batman's made tracking them down our highest priority." Canary explained sympathetically.

"But you found none of the above." Robin stated.

"Not _yet_," Black Canary corrected. "But Tornado is Justice League. The Team is _not_ to pursue this."

"Why don't you take Zatanna on a tour of the… uh… Cave…" Zatara suggested, but then trailed off when he realized Zatanna was no longer standing by the team, but petting Wolf. The team exchanged looks-they didn't need a psychic link to realize what they were each thinking.

"You're taking a tour?" Captain Marvel asked, coming in with a plate of nachos. Cool!"

"Actually," Conner said, "I was hoping you'd take Wolf outside. He needs the exercise. We'll join you in a few!"

"Sure, sure!" Captain Marvel exclaimed happily. "I can do that! C'mon, Wolf!" the superhero exclaimed before flying off with Wolf and Wally's nachos.

"Wh-bu-bla-uh, my nachos!" Wally exclaimed, only for Connor to roughly grab and drag him to the kitchen with the others.

Derek looked over at Robin who was stuttering again to find that Zatanna had changed out of her school uniform and was wearing a tank top and jeans. "We're not really taking a tour, are we?" Zatanna asked.

Connor turned around to face the magician, "No. We're hunting down that robot."

"_Note to self, don't tell Connor any important secrets."_ Derek thought.

"Yes. We are," Kaldur agreed.

"Oh, wow. Out loud and everything," Zatanna joked.

"What about new girl?" Artemis asked, looking at Zatanna cautiously.

"I'm sure she won't tell," Robin smirked.

"I can't tell, not if you kidnap me," Zatanna said, returning Robin's smirk with one of her own.

"Oh, she's going to fit in great."

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The team, plus Zatanna, loaded up into the Bio-ship and left the cave.

"M'gann, the Bio-ship wasn't authorized for departure," Black Canary's voice rang over the Bio-ship's radio system.

"We're kidnapping Zatanna- ugh, to show her around Happy Harbor." The Martian replied hastily. "Be back soon!"

"Um, roger that. Have fun." Canary replied, a little unsure.

"Where are we going?" Robin asked, frustrated after Canary cut the radio connection. "Batman is the World's Greatest Detective, and he searched for Tornado and Morrow in every logical location. If we're going to do better, we need an illogical solution." After thinking for a moment, he turned to Kid Flash grinned. "A truly dumb idea."

Kid Flash looked to see all eyes were on him. "As a matter of fact…"

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"Warden Strange owed us a favor for stopping last month's prison break. He's given us five minutes with you." Miss Martian spoke in her best interrogation voice as the team sent stern looks at the imprisoned Professor Ivo.

"Spill, Ivo. How do we find T.O. Morrow and his Reds?" Superboy demanded, glaring harshly at the android expert.

"Now, why in the world would I know how to find Morrow?" Ivo asked, completely unaffected by the Kryptonian's glare.'

"Because—and here's a truly dumb idea—you're Morrow's biggest competitor in the evil android game." Kid Flash replied. "Who better to keep track of what he's up to, and where?"

"_What's dumb about that?"_ Creed thought to himself. It made sense to keep track of your enemies' whereabouts and activities.

Ivo grinned. "Ah, I see your point. So let me rephrase—why in the world would I tell you how to find Morrow?"

Aqualad stepped forward. "He knows. Do what you must." Miss Martian stepped forward, her eyes glowing green as she tried to pry the location from Ivo's head.

Ivo just chuckled, "Oh _please_. As if I've never faced a telepath before." He said as he cross his arms, unaffected by Miss Martian's psychic probe.

Creed's mouth broke out into a rather _predatory_ grin as he stepped forward, flashing a bit of his hidden blade to catch Ivo's eyes. Ivo caught sight of the blade and the rather unnerving grin, coupled by the fact he could only see the bottom half of Creed's face, made the assassin much more intimidating than the rest of the team.

Ivo gulped a little, but kept his composure. "I'm not going to tell you anything."

Creed frowned. That was the most he could do without actually coming into contact with Ivo, and without breaking a few laws (and possibly bones). Even then, five minutes wouldn't have been enough time to break the professor. While he was competent, he was never really skilled in interrogation. Something Vald was a master of. Vald could break even the strongest willed of people into gibbering idiots. His father once told him when they had captured one of the best trained Templar Vald had managed to break him within two weeks. The man had practically begged to give them information to make the 'monster in the dark stop'.

Zatanna suddenly stepped forward and said something in some foreign language to Ivo. "Morrow's in a secret underground base beneath Yellowstone National Park, 100 meters south of Old Faithful." Ivo revealed before clasping his hands over his mouth, startled by what he had just done.

"Wait, what just happened?" the professor demanded as the team filtered out through the door and back into the Bio-Ship.

"Lock out all external communication. Soon Canary and Zatara, and Batman too, I imagine, will know of our 'visit' with Professor Ivo. We haven't much time," Aqualad instructed Miss Martian.

"Look, I'm trying to be all nonchalant here." Robin said, looking at Zatanna.

"Why? Be as chalant as you like." Zatanna said with a smile.

Derek mentally groaned, _"Great theirs _two_ of them."_

"I think we're all trying to get a handle on your powers," Artemis explained, "Could you teleport us to Tornado? Or Morrow to a cell? Or force his bots to surrender?"

"Or create peace on Earth for all time?" Zatanna sarcastically asked. "Zatara couldn't even do all that, and I'm nowhere near on my dad's level. I need to know a spell cold, or I'll have time to prep it. Plus, all magic requires energy, which usually has comes from within. I just can't make the impossible happen at will."

"What's our ETA to Yellowstone? I'm way past ready to stuff Tornado into a trash compactor." Superboy snarled.

"Are you so certain he betrayed us?" Aqualad asked calmly.

"Aren't you?" Superboy shot back.

"I am not convinced, as Derek said- if Tornado had wanted to kill us he had the perfect opportunity, but he didn't, and even so, that makes him but the victim of his creator's programming. Certainly he gets the chance to prove he's more than the weapon others designed him to be."

Superboy remained silent.

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"Stealth mode," Aqualad ordered as soon as the Bio-Ship touched down in Yellowstone.

"I recommend you stay behind," The Atlantean told Zatanna.

"Is that an order?" Zatanna asked with a smile.

"No, you must do as you see fit."

"Good!" Speaking in the foreign language again she was instantly surrounded by smoke. When the smoke cleared her tank top and jeans had become a feminine version of her father's magician outfit, minus the top hat.

Ready, the team sprinted out of the Bio-Ship to the edge of the tree line. Pulling up his computer Robin said "Ivo was right, something is down there!"

"So are just going to knock on the door?" Creed asked.

Aqualad didn't answer, opting to run out in the opening, with the rest of the team following. "So much for surprise." Creed muttered, it wasn't like there weren't going to be security cameras hidden in the area.

Before the team could make it far they were blow off their feet by gale force winds. Looking up the team found Red Tornado, arms crossed, looking down on them. With a gesture more tornados formed in a semi circle around the team, trapping them.

"Why Tornado?! Why are you doing this?!" Miss Martian shouted over the sound of the wind. In response Tornado generated several more tornados. _"Message received." _She said over the link.

Superboy nodded, "Who cares why? Nail him!" Superboy and Aqualad ran forward to confront the areokinetic android.

"Superboy, maneuver seven!" Aqualad commanded.

Superboy turned around and held his hands together and threw Aqualad towards Red Tornado. Aqualad brought his arm back for a punch, but Aqualad received a face full of metal when Tornado struck him in the face, sending him flying into Superboy, stunning both of them.

Artemis notched three arrows and shot them at the android as Robin and Creed ran up next to her. Tornado used his control over air to redirect the trajectory of the arrows back to the trio. The arrows exploded mere feet away, sending them flying into the dirt.

Kid Flash yelled, "That does it Red! You're not the only spin doctor around here." Kid Flash created his own black tornado by spinning in a circle. With Kid Flash distracting Tornado, Miss Martian floated behind him and attempted a surprise punch from behind. Tornado caught her punch and threw her at Kid Flash. She crashed through KF's fledgling tornado, making them both crash into the ground.

Zatanna, now the only conscience member of the team attempted to use magic on Tornado, but she had trouble choosing what spell to use. By the time she found the correct incantation Tornado was on top of her and held her by the throat, cutting off her air supply. The magician fell to the ground unconscious. Red Tornado flew up higher, surveying his work.

"Quite a performance, brother." Another red android raised a pillar of rock to Tornado's level.

"But we both know that's all it was. I have all your memories, Tornado, plus a next gen processor. I know your next move before you do."

The team got up from the prone positions, revealing that they weren't really unconscious. The red android raised a chuck of earth out of the ground, showing the words PLAY DEAD written out on the rock.

"Blowing a message into the sand?" The new droid mocked as it crushed the chunk into smaller boulders and threw them at the team. Aqualad and Superboy leapt at the incoming mass of rock and dirt, crushing incoming boulders while Miss Martian telekinetically deflected them. The rest of the team was forced to dodge the rocks that got past them.

_"__Zatanna?"__ Robin asked in concern, seeing the magician barley dodge a boulder._

_"I'm good." _The magician assured him. _"But the Red Tornado's getting away."__ Zatanna looked up to see Red Tornado flying away._

_"__Is he abandoning us?" _Artemis asked in disbelief as she notched another arrow.

_"__I don't believe that!" _Miss Martian said.

"You stand no chance against me, humans." The android remarked as it dodged a punch from Kid Flash before returning it with one of his own.

"We're not human!" Miss Martian and Superboy yelled as they lunged for the android.

"Apologies. I suppose the properly inclusive term is-" Two giant rock hand burst out of the ground and smashed into the two aliens. "-Meatbags." With a wave of his hand the droid created a fissure in the ground. Aqualad, Artemis and Creed found the ground falling from beneath their feet into inky darkness. Creed fired his dart rope, catching the edge of the fissure. Artemis fired an arrow with a line at the opening. When the arrow was secured she swung to Aqualad, catching him and then the three of them swung back up to the surface making it just before the opening crushed them. Robin leapt up on one of the jagged rocks and threw a birdarang at the android. While the android showed no signs of seeing the birdarang it easily caught it in its hand just before it detonated. The smoke cleared showing that the droid was completely unharmed.

"Tornado's memory files and my superior processing speed allow me to anticipate your every move." While the droid is mocking the team Zatanna cast another spell and the smoke surrounding the droid wrapped around its eyes like a blindfold.

"Tornado never knew my moves." Zatanna remarked as Robin ran up to here.

"And I bet you got some good ones!" Robin said, but backtracked when Zatanna gave him an odd look. "Whoa, sorry, I might have come off a little too Wally."

"I don't mind." Zatanna replied with a smile.

Creed coughed. "Uh guys, probably not the best time to flirt while there's an evil android trying to kill us all." Making the two younger teens blush. Creed threw several knives at the android, but they harmlessly bounced off the android's armored body.

However the team's victory over the droid was short lived when lasers shot out of its eyes, eliminating the blindfold. At the same time a massive pillar of lava shot up from the mountain directly behind him. The explosion erupted violently, as a large amount of smoke was sent blasting out of the volcano and into the upper atmosphere. The lava streamed down the sides of the volcano, creating a moat around the droid. Lava cover rocks were sent hurdling towards Kid Flash, who easily dodged them.

_"He's activating a stage 2 eruption." _Kid Flash said grimly as he looked upon the forming super-volcano. _"It gets to stage 3, kiss the hemisphere good-bye."_

_"Hit him from all sides." _Aqualad ordered. He and Superboy leapt at the droid, only to be swatted away like flies. Miss Martian tried telekinetically pulling the droid off the pillar, but the droid unleashed a fissure of lava mere feet from the Martian. The intense heat was too much for her, and she fell to the ground unconscious.

"M'gann!" Superboy exclaimed, rushing over to help her. The droid jumped between them and smacked Superboy away and picked up the unconscious Martian. Zatanna spoke another spell, and the smoke around Kid Flash turned into Kid Flash clones. They took off the rescue Miss M while Zatanna explained excitedly, "I use a scaled-down version when I want to sneak out of the house."

Waving his free hand the android sent rocks at the Kid Flashes. The clones dissipated on contact while the real Kid Flash managed to get behind the android and free Miss Martian from its grip. Suddenly a massive pillar of water struck the droid, sending it flying into the lava.

Thinking it was Aqualad, Robin commented "Nice hit!"

"The hit was not mine. Look!" Aqualad pointed to the hydrokinetic droid that had invaded the Cave. The larger android tried to sand up but the hydrokinetic droid sent two more waves of water crashing into it. The droid tried to escape by rising on a pillar of rock, but Red Tornado smashed into it, causing the droid to fall back into the lava. Fireballs struck the droid as the pyrokinetic droid attacked, and joined the larger droid in the lava, grappling with it. The team could only look helplessly as the droids engaged in combat.

"Brothers, sister, stop!" The larger droid ordered, but was ignored when the hydrokinetic droid landed on it, pushing it under the lava. Red Tornado joined them, his additional weight preventing the droid from escaping. As the lava threatened to consume Tornado Superboy jumped off the rocks and pulled Red Tornado from the molten lava. The volcano started to rumble louder, threatening to burst at any moment.

Kid Flash turned to face the legless android. "Tornado listen! We're on the verge on a stage 3 super volcano eruption! There's no turning back from that. We need to vent pressure fast, but the ash cloud will bring on a worldwide nuclear winter unless you divert it!" Red Tornado nodded in response. Turning to Robin KF ordered "Triangulate around the pressure locus!"

"Right." Robin replied as three red dots appeared on his holographic representation of the volcano. "There, there, and there!" Artemis fired an arrow at the location and three separate rockets struck the locus. As the volcano's pressure vented from the hole a massive cloud of smoke covered the sky. Tornado flew into the sky and the team watched as he created a huge tornado, which vented the toxic smoke far out off the upper atmosphere. The lava began to cool into rock without the pressure pushing new lava to the surface.

"Yes!" Kid Flash exclaimed triumphantly as Tornado landed down roughly on the ground. The team managed to find Morrow's lair and Robin and Kid Flash used Morrow's spare parts to repair Red Tornado.

"There, that should do it." Robin said.

"Yes, I can speak again." Red Tornado stated.

Aqualad stepped forward. "You were willing to sacrifice yourself to save the planet."

"The planet would have survived. It was humanity that was saved." Red Tornado responded as he turned his head to see Aqualad place his hand on the android's shoulder. "Though not by me. My sister and brother were the true heroes of this day."

"My point is this—you were never the mole, never a traitor."

"No. I left to protect you from further attack and to find my creator, T.O. Morrow." Red Tornado confirmed.

"See, I told you he wasn't trying to kill us." Creed said with a small smile.

"Cool, souvenir." The speedster exclaimed as he waved a robotic hand with his casted one.

"Reddy, we can rebuild you, better than you were before." The Boy Wonder exclaimed as he held a large foot.

"I do not believe I should be repaired." Tornado replied.

"Why'd you volunteer to be our den mother in the first place?" Superboy asked abruptly.

"I was the pragmatic choice. I do not sleep. I have no secret identity or second life to live." Tornado replied.

Kid Flash grinned. "But, you do have advanced A.I. programming designed to learn, adapt, evolve."

Miss Martian face-palmed. "Hello, Megan! You wanted to become more human."

"And you couldn't do that with the League. They're stiffs." Artemis added.

"You're sure not going to learn emotion from Batman. Trust me." Robin agreed.

"Then the Cave was not a proving ground only for us, but for you as well." Aqualad concluded.

"I do not know if these statements are accurate, but perhaps they are true. And if I understand the term correctly, I have believe I have come to… care about you all." The android spoke, earning grins and caring faces from the younger heroes.

"See? Practically a meat-bag already." Superboy said warmly.

"Which reminds me."

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While Red Tornado went to visit a hospitalized T.O. Morrow the team loaded in the Bio-Ship to head back to the Cave.

"So, good kidnapping?" Robin asked Zatanna.

"Actually, yeah. Best ever." The magician responded with a smile.

"First of many, I hope." Robin said with a hopeful smile.

Zatanna frowned with worry, "If my dad doesn't ground me for life."

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**Review!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey guys! Thank you for your reviews. I'm only a few away from triple digits!**

**Don't worry there will be a lot of killing in the second season, but I do have some ideas for a chapter where Derek/Creed does kill someone in this season.**

**I had fun writing this chapter and I hope you all enjoy it too.**

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"_Team report to the mission room."_ Batman's voice ordered over the comm. system.

Within a few minutes the entire team was ready for whatever mission Batman was going to assign. "This is Nickolas Toulson." He said, bringing up an image of an aging old man with graying hair. "A prominent member of the British Parliament and a strong supporter of global disarmament. He will be attending a charity gala tonight in a New York hotel to deliver a speech, we have reason to believe that the League of Shadows have been hired to assassinate him while at the gala. The team will be going undercover in order to prevent this." Shutting the screens off he gave out everyone's assignments. "Aqualad you will be coordinating efforts from a secured hotel room, Superboy will be posing as one of the hotel's security officers, Kid Flash will be a waiter, and the rest of you will be attending as guests. Your disguises are in your rooms, get dressed and ready in 10."

"How come I have to be a waiter?" Wally asked the others as they walked back to their rooms to get changed.

"We need to have eye everywhere, being a waiter will allow you to observe to see if anyone has tampered with Nickolas' food." Derek explained.

"You think they might poison him?" Robin asked. "Doesn't seem like the Shadow's style."

"From what I've seen of Shadow assassin's behaviors I would agree, but we need to cover all angles on this."

"How would you recommend that we proceeded when we arrive?" Kaldur asked, wishing to get some insight from the assassin.

Derek frowned a little, he didn't want to be in charge, but he had to admit he was the team member with the most experience regarding assassination techniques. "I'll have to see the layout of the building, how many people will be there and what type of person Nickolas is."

"Why's that important?" Conner asked.

"If he's an open person he's going to be walking around and talking to people, that makes it easier to get close to him, if he's guarded the assassin will have to use more elaborate measures to kill him." Derek explained.

"We will gladly accept any insight you can provide us." Kaldur said.

"Well we better get dressed; the gala starts in three hours." Robin said.

ACYJACYJACYJACYJACYJ

Creed tried not to tug at his tie, as irritating as it was. The team had gotten into the party using the IDs and cover Batman provided without a hitch and had taken up strategic positions. Kid Flash tried to make sure the food wasn't being tampered with in the kitchen, while Artemis, Miss M and Robin looked for any suspicious activity among the guests and hotel staff. Superboy made sure to stand at least 5 feet from Nickolas at all times, ready to use his invulnerable body to defend him at a moment's notice. Aqualad oversaw the operation from the secured hotel room using several computers that had tapped into the hotel's camera system, courteously of Robin's hacking skills.

"_This sucks."_ Kid Flash sulked.

"_You're only saying that because you're a waiter."_ Artemis shot back. Creed could almost hear the satisfied smirk in her voice.

"_Anything?"_ Aqualad interjected before the two escalated.

"_Nothing yet."_ Informed Robin.

"_Since Nickolas seems pretty friendly they'll probably try to get in close, kill him and disappear into the crowd."_ Creed said, scanning the party floor. There was something that didn't feel right about the party, Creed wasn't sure what it was but it seemed…fake for a lack of a better word.

"_That doesn't seem like the Shadow's style."_ Artemis said.

"_No its not, but if they do attempt some over the top assassination, getting out of the hotel isn't going to be easy, even without us, there are dozens of security guards waiting at the exits, it would make more sense to have this assassination fly under the radar."_ Creed countered.

"_We must find the identity of the assassin before they reach Nickolas."_ Aqualad stressed.

Before Creed could reply a voice called out, "Hey Handsome."

Creed turned to face the familiar flirty voice and froze at the sight in front of him.

It was Cheshire, but that is not what caught his attention. She was currently wearing a form fitting strapless green dress with a slit running down the right leg side of the dress, showing off one of her legs and her pair of heels. Her long wild hair had been some-what tamed for the occasion. If it wasn't for the predatory gleam in her eye Creed might have mistaken her for someone else. Had Creed not had training in controlling his reactions he would have been gaping at the sight.

"What's the matter, cat got your tough?" Cheshire asked. She knew that all assassins (herself included) had to be able to control their reactions to avoid giving away information or losing control of the situation. Freezing up like Creed just did was the equivalent of someone with no training gaping and drooling at the sight.

Regaining his composure Creed asked, "What are you doing here?", while also informing the team of her presence. _"It's Cheshire."_

"_Where?" _Aqualad asked.

"_Two feet in front of me."_

Cheshire just shrugged nonchalantly, as if she wasn't here to kill someone. "Enjoying the party and the sights." Cheshire said with a flirty smirk.

"_Can you detain her?" _

Creed glanced at his surroundings before responding to both of them. "Didn't peg you as the dancing type."

"_Not without alerting her partner."_

"_What makes you think she has a partner?"_ Miss Martian asked.

"_There's no way she would be able to pull this assassination off without a partner, at least not now that she's revealed herself."_ Creed mentally explained to the Martian.

Robin asked,_ "Were do you think her partner is?"_

"_Don't know, but I'm going to have to distract her while you guys look for him."_

"_Or her."_ Artemis interjected.

"_Or her."_ Creed amended. _"But is a situation like this a male partner is more likely, two dance partners are less likely to draw attention that two girls whispering to each other."_

"_So how are you going to distract her?"_ Kid Flash asked.

"_It's a gala, what do you think I'll do?"_

"_But she an assassin!" _KF protested. _"She probably has a dozen weapons on her right now!"_

"…_."_

"_Oh, right."_

"Oh, I am, just not _this _dancing type." Cheshire said with a wink. The meaning was not lost by Creed.

"Then would you care to share this dance with me?" Creed asked as the orchestra started another song.

Cheshire blinked, as if surprised by Creed's question, before saying, "I'd love to handsome." The two of them assumed the correct dancing positions. Creed positioned his right hand on her shoulder while his left hand was on her waist. Cheshire did the same, and the two began to dance.

It was strange, they had never danced before but they moved in unison, as if they knew their dance partner's next move.

"Don't suppose you'll tell me who hired you?" Creed asked as they moved in perfect synchronization.

"Maybe if you buy me dinner first." Cheshire flirted.

"Sorry, don't have any cash."

"Too bad, but I will tell you something else." Cheshire whispered into his ear. Creed shivered, he could feel her breath tickling his ear.

"Oh, and what's that?"

"The man who hired me told me to give you a message." Cheshire said as they continued to dance.

"What was it?" Creed asked, curious to who would give him a message.

"الاختباء في خضم الحشود."* Cheshire said she didn't know what it meant, Arabic wasn't one of the languages she knew how to speak but it was clear that Creed new. His face paled dramatically, becoming as white as a sheet and his eyes began to flicker of the crowd in fear, looking of any clues he might have missed. And what he found he didn't like.

On many of the men attending the gala where silver rings. When Creed had first seen them he discounted them as wedding rings, but as he looked closer he could see his fear was confirmed. On each ring was an insignia.

A Templar insignia.

Creed's mind went into overdrive; Cheshire had just unknowingly said the codeword that would trigger the trap that he and the team had fallen into. _"Okay, none of them have made their move yet which means their waiting for something."_ Creed thought.

"_What men?"_ Robin asked over the link.

"_It's a trap, the gala, the assassination; it was all a trap for us."_ Creed explained, not really paying attention to the rest of the team's inquiries. What he was paying attention to was the crowd of guest gawking at a helicopter hovering next to one of the hotel windows.

Creed knew what was going to happen next.

From the helicopter a man fired a grenade launcher into the hotel room. The grenade shattered the glass and unleashed a cloud of smoke that filled the room, blinding the occupants. Creed felt Cheshire pull away from him and disappear into the ink black smoke. When the smoke cleared many of the room's occupants were no longer peaceful businessmen and waiters, but now cold-blooded killers. They held a variety of weapons, ranging from extendable swords and unfolding crossbows, one of them somehow managed to sneak in a mace.

Aqualad gave orders over the link,_ " KF, Superboy, get Nickolas out of the building, Robin, Artemis, Miss M, assist Cre-"_

"_No, I have the Templar, stop Cheshire and that helicopter."_ Creed ordered.

"_Are you sure, I know you're good, but-"_ Kid Flash tried to ask but was interrupted.

"_I _have _this."_ Creed stressed. One of the younger templar made his move, sword raised high above his head clearly intending on slicing the assassin in half, but he was inexperienced, telegraphing his moves before he even knew what they were. Creed sidestepped the rather sloppy slash with ease making the templar imbed the sword in the ground. Creed delivered a devastating elbow to the man's face, breaking the man's nose. The man howled in pain, relinquishing his grip on the sword to clutch his broken nose. Not giving the man time to recover Creed finished him off with a quick jab to the man's throat, knocking him out. Creed shifted his attention back to the other templar who were watching the assassin warily, waiting for him to make his move. Creed's hand discreetly gripped the sword the man had been using. While it was a bit too big for him it would have to do, he hadn't been able to disguise his sword in this outfit. Both sides remained motionless, waiting for the other to make their move.

Everything happened at once.

The crossbowmen fired, aiming for his torso. Creed leapt into the air, using the force of the jump to pull the sword out of the wood, also avoiding the deadly swarm of arrows. Most of the arrows landed a few feet behind where he had been standing, but a handful of them struck some templar in the legs and arms, incapacitating them. Before his feet even touched the ground Creed was already making his next move. His stolen sword raised high he brought it down on a templar who blocked it with his own sword. As Creed pushed the man and his own sword to the ground he snapped it back up, allowing the hilt to strike the man in the head, knocking him unconscious. Creed sighed mentally as his blocked a sword from another templar. That was the downside of working with the team. He had been trained his whole life to learn how to fight and kill to protect the innocent, but now he was faced with a horde of templar, and couldn't kill them because he was working with the Justice League. Creed's body was on autopilot as he considered the ramifications, knocking out five more templar when one of them got a lucky hit in and managed to scratch his cheek with the tip of their sword. Creed pushed his thoughts aside and focused on the situation at hand. He put his thoughts on the backburner and allowed his body to weave in and out of the templar's ranks, delivering incapacitating blows, careful to only render them incapable of fighting. _"Hope the others are okay."_ Creed thought as dodged another lethal arrow.

ACYJACYJACYJACYJACYJ

"Get in!" Superboy ordered as he opened the door to Nickolas' limo.

"Thank you." The British parliament member said for the dozenth time since they got out of the building, and it was starting to annoy Superboy.

"Yeah I know were awesome, now get in." Kid Flash ushered. Without another word Nickolas climbed into the car and told his driver to leave.

When they got several blocks away the driver parked the car in an empty lot and Nickolas pulled out a small communicator. "Are they there?" A voice asked as soon as he turned on the communicator.

"Yes." Nickolas confirmed, "They were all present."

"Did they suspect anything?"

"No, they remained oblivious." Nickolas assured.

"Good. Make sure it remains that way, you know the price of failure." Nickolas gulped nervously, fiddling with a ring on his finger. A ring with a templar insignia.

"I understand."

ACYJACYJACYJACYJACYJ

"_Nickolas is clear of the building."_ KF told Aqualad over as Nickolas' car drove off to the safe house.

"_Good, assist Creed in taking down the rest of the Templar."_ Aqualad ordered.

Before either KF or Superboy could answer a kryptonite laced dart struck Superboy in the neck, penetrating his impenetrable skin. The dart unleashed a powerful tranquilizer into the Kryptonian's body. He was unconscious before he hit the floor.

"You know, for being Superman's clone I expected him to be harder to take down." Kid Flash looked to the source of the monotone voice, finding an armored individual standing a mere 10 feet away, how someone besides Robin, Creed or Batman managed to get that close to Superboy without alerting him was beyond the speedster.

"Who are you?" KF asked while alerting the rest of the team. _"Guys, Superboy is down."_

"_What! how?" _Miss Martian's panicked voice asked.

"Forgive me for not introducing myself, but I believe Derek has already told you my name."

"Vald?" Kid Flash asked out loud, this was not what he expected. He had imagined that Creed's nemesis would have been gruff and threatening to tear him apart by now, but Vald was calm, collected and unconcerned that he was facing an opponent that could move faster than he could keep track of. _"Uh, Creed does Vald wear a grey mask and body armor and have a voice that can send chills down your spine?"_

"_Yeah, why?"_

"_Because he just took down Superboy."_ Whatever reaction KF was expecting it wasn't what happened next.

"_WHAT! Wally get out of their now!"_

"_It's not like he can catch me."_

"_Do _not_ underestimate him." _ Creed stressed while dodging a mace that came within inches of tearing his head off.

"Telling the rest of your team that I'm here over your mental link?" Vald questioned. "Oh I know all about your team." He said at the look of shock on Kid Flash's face.

"So then you know I'm going to take you down right?" KF asked with a cocky smirk.

"_Kid Flash; distract Vald long enough for the rest of the team to arrive."_Aqualad said.

"_Don't you guys have to deal with that helicopter and Cheshire?"_

"_The helicopter has retreated and Cheshire had vacated the building. We are en route to your location."_

"Well come on, if you're going to take me down do it, I do have a busy schedule." Vald taunted.

Kid Flash charged Vald, intending on showing the Templar what happened when someone underestimated a speedster. Kid Flash's eyes widened when Vald threw a handful of small black marbles on the floor in front of him. KF couldn't stop fast enough and found himself slipping across the floor. Vald's fist struck him in the windpipe before he could regain his balance, knocking him out cold. KF slid across the floor. Vald walked up to the unconscious speedster. "You're lucky I didn't snap your throat with that hit. Too bad for you I'm going to snap it anyway."

Vald's foot came down, fully intending on snapping the young speedster's neck, only for an invisible force to push him back against the wall. Looking up Vald saw the Martian holding her hand up to him, signaling that she was telekinetically holding him against the wall. Aqualad leapt over Miss Martian, his water bearers in the shape of a hammer, preparing to knock the templar unconscious. However Vald had other ideas. With a flick off his wrist a small black marble landed by Miss Martian's feet. Less than a second later the device went off, unleashing a high intensity heat explosive, weakening the Martian. Without the Martian to hold him back Vald moved out of the way of Aqualad, whose water hammer struck the ground with a thud. Before Aqualad had a chance to turn around Vald grabbed him by the head and smashed him into the wall, stunning the Atlantean. Vald then threw Aqualad into a recovering Miss Martian and they both fell back to the ground.

"I must say, this is the most entertainment I've had in a while." Vald commented looking down at the two of them, raising his spear to run them through.

A thwack sound caught the templar's attention and with a brief glance to his left his left hand shot up with the speed of a viper and caught a contact detonation arrow. Looking over to Artemis' hiding place, Vald's eyes narrowed in annoyance in contrast to Artemis', which were wide open in shock that he had caught her arrow without diverting his attention. Vald threw the arrow in between them and the smoke from the explosion obscured Artemis' view of him. Notching another arrow the heroine was not surprised when the smoke cleared that Vald was not there. What did surprise Artemis was suddenly finding her hands empty. Looking to her side she caught sight of Vald's foot just before his roundhouse kick struck her ribs. Artemis staggered back clutching her side in pain.

"Archers a bit useless without a bow." Vald commented, examining the bow as if to taunt her. Artemis' eyes narrowed in anger at Vald's dismissal for her being a threat without her bow. Covering the distance between them in a few short steps Artemis delivered a high kick- intending to remove Vald's mask. Vald remained motionless, allowing her to aim and deliver the kick, but as her foot neared his face his arm shot up again and easily caught the offending appendage. Artemis winced, his grip was like a vise, and she couldn't extract her foot from his grasp. "Please, don't pretend that you're on my level." Vald rolled his eyes at Artemis' futile attempts to free herself.

"Let's see if you're on mine!" Vald's head snapped up at the sound of the childish challenge. Robin jumped onto Vald's shoulders, using them like a springboard to propel himself over the templar's head. The force of the jump caused Vald to lose his grip on Artemis who back flipped herself out of Vald's reach.

"So you're the so called Boy Wonder." Vald asked, looking Robin up and down. "I expected someone taller."

Robin didn't allow the slight against is size to distract him, and instead used it to his advantage. If his opponent under estimated him enough he might be able to knock him out. Robin allowed his cape to cover his arm, obscuring it from view. "You know if you weren't wearing that mask I'd bet you'd look a lot like the people who hang out in white vans and hand out candy to kids."

Vald narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "Is that supposed to be a barb?"

"No, but this is." With a quick snap of his wrist Robin threw a birdarang at the templar, who swatted it away with no more effort than someone who was swatting at an annoying bug. But Robin had not intended for the birdarang to hit him, just to distract him. As soon as the birdarang left his hand he rushed forward. He wasn't sure were the man's weak point was, but he went for the face, the usual failsafe-if he could knock that mask off with a kick…

Quick as lightning Vald turned around, grabbing Artemis by the wrist, who had been trying to sneak up on him and with a heave threw her into Robin. Both heroes fell to the ground. Robin tried to get up but Vald slammed his foot down, pinning him to the ground. "I expected you to more skilled at this." Vald commented, lazily resting his arm against his leg.

"Stay _away_ from them!"

Vald turned around to see Creed in the doorway, holding a slightly bloodied sword. "Oh, and if I don't?"

"I'll kill you." Robin looked at Creed in shock. He had never heard Creed sound like that, and the fact that it was coming from someone that knew how to kill with his bare hands was terrifying.

Vald laughed, stepping off of Robin to face Creed and grabbed an object off of his belt. "Now how are you going to kill me-" The object snapped open, revealing it to be a sword "If can't even defend yourself?" Creed snarled and charged at Vald, his sword moving to strike against his lower torso. But Vald easily blocked the strike and punched Creed in the stomach with his free hand. Creed staggered back a few feet and ducked as Vald's sword lashed through the air where his head had been not seconds before.

Creed suddenly found himself on the defensive, blocking and dodging Vald's razor sharp sword, unable to form a strategy, only able to react. After one particularly heavy blow Creed swept his sword upwards, the tip just barley grazing Vald's mask. In retaliation Vald swung at Creed's thigh.

"You've almost impressed me." Vald commented as Creed's sword blocked Vald's sword mere inches from his thigh. Had Vald sliced his thigh he would have severely injured his hamstring muscle and would have crippled him.

"I'm not trying to impress you." Creed ground out as the struggled against Vald's superior strength.

"Good. Because you're _not_."

With a blur Vald's left hand grabbed Creed's wrist and painfully twisted it. Creed yelped in pain, dropping his sword. Vald kneed him in the stomach and backhanded him against a wall. "Like I said, you can't even defend yourself." Vald leveled his sword at Creed's midsection, intending on running him through. Creed however had other ideas. As Vald charged him he jumped up on top of the sword and used it to leap over Vald. As soon as his feet were on the ground Creed threw a knife at the templar.

"You're going to have to learn some new tricks." Vald taunted as he sidestepped the knife, allowing it to imbed itself into the wall behind him.

Creed smirked. "I already have."

Vald raised an unseen eyebrow at the assassin's statement, only to have a beeping sound catch his ears. Looking behind him Vald's eyes widened. The handle of the knife was blinking red, indicating an explosive hidden in the handle that was about to go off. "You little-" The explosive went off, and while it wasn't very large (no larger than one of Robin's birdarangs) the close proximity to the templar was enough to knock him off balance and created a small crack in his helmet.

Before he could regain his balance Vald suddenly found his hand empty. Looking up he saw that Aqualad had recovered and had retched his sword out of his hand with a water whip. Kid Flash, who had regained conscious, ran around Vald creating a whirlwind. Vald found his feet leaving the ground from the force of the wind. Vald reached for his explosives, but suddenly found himself slamming against the wall with Miss Martian's telekinesis.

Vald threw another explosive at the Martian but it was intercepted by an arrow before it reached the alien, however it had the desired effect- Miss Martian lost her telekinetic grip on Vald. Vald rolled onto the ground unharmed but found himself faced with a trio of explosive arrows hurdling towards him.

With lightning fast reflexes Vald threw three knives in retaliation detonating the arrows before they got within range. The thick smoke from the explosives blinded his view of the team. But Vald easily swatted Robin away when he came charging through the fog. Robin back flipped out of Vald's reach and pulled out his taser. Two prongs with electrified tips shot out but were easily caught by the templar. Vald realized a moment later it was not intended to hit him.

Creed leapt out of the smoke and delivered a flying kick to Vald's face. The kick struck the area damaged by Creed's explosive knife causing a fourth of the mask to break off, revealing white skin and military style cut black hair. Vald angrily glared at Creed but didn't allow the anger to control him. His eyes coolly assessed the team who had managed to regroup. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that the Superboy was starting to recover from the tranquilizer. Deciding that it was time to leave Vald discreetly reached into one of his pockets. "Nice try." With a flick of his wrist Vald threw a smoke pellet onto the ground, blinding the team. When the smoke cleared Vald was gone.

ACYJACYJACYJACYJACYJ

In a car some distance from the hotel Cheshire was waiting for her employer to show.

"Don't get too attached."

Cheshire nearly jumped out of her skin. She turned to face the other seat to find that her employer, Vald, had somehow managed to get into the car without alerting her.

"To what?" Cheshire asked after regaining her composure.

"To Creed." Cheshire opened her mouth to protest but Vald cut her off. "Don't deny it, I see the way you act around him- its more than just a passing interest."

Cheshire tried to open her mouth to contradict him, except she found she couldn't. She was intrigued by Creed, he was handsome, a skilled fighter and intelligent. Besides that there was just something about him that…different that anyone else she flirted with. "Why?"

Vald's eyes narrowed. "Because once he and his little teammates outlive their usefulness their going to be killed. Regardless of their family ties." Cheshire stiffed at the threat against her sister. She wasn't easy to scare and if anyone else had threatened her sister she would have protested in some way, but there was something about Vald that sent shivers down her spine.

"Understood."

That didn't mean she had to like it.

ACYJACYJACYJACYJACYJ

Back at the cave the team was delivering their report to Batman.

"Nickolas made it to the safe house unharmed, however Vald, Cheshire, and the attack helicopter managed to escape." Kaldur informed the Dark Knight.

Batman gave the teens a once over. Had Kaldur been human and not Atlantean the force of being struck against the wall would have given him a concussion. Wally's throat was red and bruised from Vald's fist. Artemis hand been putting more weight on her left leg, her right ankle was still sore from Vald's grip had it been any tighter it could have seriously damaged her ankle. Conner was _still _woozy from the tranquilizer and need some help from Megan to stand up straight. The young Martian had recovered from her experience from the high heat explosive but Batman could still see some sweat on her forehead. Robin's Kevlar armor had prevented him from getting seriously hurt however he occasionally rubbed his chest where Vald's foot had slammed down. Derek had been rubbing his sore wrist, but out of all of them Derek had gotten the worst off. Batman could see the haunted look in his eyes, the kind of look one got when they allowed someone who killed someone dear to them to escape. It was the same look Batman would often have on his face.

"Understood. Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Black Canary and Hawkman have detained the assassins at the hotel and Nickolas is being escorted out of the country. I want a full report from all of you, dismissed."

As the team returned to their rooms to get changed into civvies Robin asked Derek, "Hey are you ok? During the fight you seemed…different."

Derek glanced at the team who were giving concerned looks. Derek smiled without humor. "I'm fine." Derek retreated into his room and sat on the bed. Sighing he pulled out the portion of Vald's mask that had broken off. The eyehole seemed to glare at him, mocking him for his failure. "I _will_ kill you." Derek ground out, as if Vald could hear him."Even if it kills me."

ACYJACYJACYJACYJACYJ

***In English – "Hide in the midst of the crowd." I'm not entirely sure that's the correct translation, but it was the closest I could get to.**

**Sorry if the dance scene seemed a bit short, but since I don't have much experience dancing I wasn't sure how to describe it but I hope you all enjoyed it.**

**Review!**


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